MDG Scene  903 1660-6

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical

Bach: Sonatas for Viola and Piano BWV 1027-1029, Chorale Preludes (arr. Franz Beyer)

Hariolf Schlichtig (viola)
Yumi Sekiya (piano)


Instrumental Exchange
Johann Sebastian Bach composed almost two hundred chorale preludes and chorale arrangements, but they have only rarely been interpreted on the viola and piano. This recording program with the violist Hariolf Schlichtig and the pianist Yumi Sekiya features some of these familiar works as well as the three gamba sonatas from Köthen.

Sonata Transfer
Johann Sebastian Bach’s three Sonatas for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord (BWV 1027-1029) number among his most famous chamber works. The French gamba culture of Bach’s time was characterized by virtuosic ornaments and highly developed chordal playing, but here we have something quite different – which means that it was quite logical and natural to transfer the gamba part to the viola.

Harmonic Center
Bach himself was fond of playing the viola at musical gatherings when his talents were not otherwise required. He evidently enjoyed placing himself “in the middle of the harmony” with this instrument in order to listen attentively to the other parts – as his biographer Forkel reports.

Chorale Spectrum
Franz Beyer chose with great care and skill when he removed Bach’s chorales from their sacred context in order to arrange them for the Schlichtig/Sekiya duo. A full spectrum ranging from mystical wedding music (“Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”) and a meditation (“O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß”) to an Advent melody embellished with the finest art (“Nun komm der Heiden Heiland“), a work from the year of Bach’s death, is represented. And it is indeed fascinating now to enjoy these works – almost in absolute form and without their church associations – on a sonorous Steinway concert grand piano and in SACD multichannel sound.