Viola da gamba sonata no. 1 in G major
BWV 1027 performed by Mieneke van der Velden and Emmanuel Frankenberg
at Broedergemeente, Zeist
Behind the music
Story
Story
Extra videos
Extra videos
Credits
Credits
Gilt cast iron
An obscure sonata that seeks out musical extremes
Bach wrote the lion’s share of his chamber music in Köthen, where he was Kapellmeister from 1717 to 1723. The court was not especially large and neither was the chapel, but it did comprise exceptionally talented musicians.
Well-known pieces that Bach wrote in Köthen include the six cello suites, for example. These demanding works may have been intended for Christian Ferdinand Abel, one of the cellists at the court of Köthen. Abel’s main instrument, however, was not the cello, but the viola da gamba – at the time still a formidable rival of the cello, and maybe more highly valued as a solo instrument. It is very likely that Bach wrote the three sonatas for cello and concertante harpsichord for him.
The Sonata for viola da gamba and harpsichord – recorded here for All of Bach – also exists in a version for two flutes and continuo (BWV 1039). Researchers suspect that neither version is the original, but that they are rather arrangements of an earlier trio sonata by Bach himself, which has not survived. Although this sonata, BWV 1027, has never become really famous, it is Bach through and through. In the quick movements, we hear the gilt cast-iron polyphony that forms the trademark of the composer. In between these movements, there is a dark cadenza that seeks out the extremes of what was musically possible in the eighteenth century.
- BWV
- 1027
- Title
- Sonata for harpsichord and viola da gamba in G major
- Instrument
- viola da gamba, harpsichord
- Genre
- chamber music
- City
- Köthen
With support from
Annenies, Isa, Tessel and Dick van Gameren
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 23 November 2023
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- Recording date
- 13 March 2023
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- Location
- Broedergemeente, Zeist
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- Viola da gamba
- Mieneke van der Velden
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- Instrument
- Antoine Despont, 1617
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- Harpsichord
- Emmanuel Frankenberg
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- Instrument
- Bruce Kennedy, 1989 after Michael Mietke
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- Director and camera
- Bas Wielenga
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Pim van der Lee
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- Music recording, edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Onno van Ameijde
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- Lights
- Ernst-Jan Thieme
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- Lighting assistant
- Jordi Kooij, Joey Marcoux
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- Data handling
- Brechtje van Riel
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Producer
- Laura Jonker
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- With support from
- Annenies, Isa, Tessel and Dick van Gameren
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