Flute Sonata in A major
BWV 1032 performed by Marten Root and Menno van Delft
Mauritshuis, The Hague
Behind the music
Story
Story
Credits
Credits
Eventful past
Despite fire and lost pages, this sonata is now performed in the Golden Room
Although it appears fairly straightforward – eighteenth-century music in an eighteenth-century room – both Bach’s Flute Sonata in A major and the ‘Golden Room’ of the Mauritshuis in The Hague have an eventful past. They were both subject to destruction, disappearance, reconstruction and comeback.
Along with the rest of the interior of the seventeenth-century Mauritshuis, the Grote Benedenzaal (big downstairs salon) was burnt down in 1704. Afterwards, the room and its baroque woodcarvings, gilding and paintings was gradually restored to glory. But even after the restoration, it looked totally different to nowadays: (the Mauritshuis made a digital reconstruction of how it looked originally).
Bach’s Flute Sonata in A major also has a complicated past. Bach notated the work himself on a series of remaining empty staves at the bottom of pages of a piece of music he had written earlier. Later on, pages were lost from the manuscript, along with many bars from the first movement. So here, too, reconstruction was necessary. The sonata as a whole was probably also a ‘reconstruction’ of an earlier work. Notes made on the manuscript suggest that it was preceded by another version – probably a ‘real’ trio sonata for recorder, violin and basso continuo.
The manuscript of this flute sonata was acquired by the Royal Library in Berlin in the nineteenth century. In 1941, along with many other treasures from the library, it was rehoused for safety reasons in what is nowadays Poland. It stayed there after World War II and disappeared from view. It was returned to Berlin only in 1977, along with five other important music manuscripts.
The Mauritshuis took preventive measures as well. In 1939, the basement was turned into a bomb-proof space. But nevertheless – just as in Berlin – many highlights of the collection were kept safely elsewhere during the war. For example, Paulus Potter’s famous bull, which looks at us towards the end of the sonata, spent the latter years of the war in an art bunker in the St Pietersberg hill, in Maastricht.
- BWV
- 1032
- Title
- Sonata for harpsichord and traverso in A major
- Instrument
- harpsichord, traverso
- Genre
- chamber music
- Year
- unknown
- Special notes
- The manuscript dates from 1736, but there is an earlier, simpler version of the middle movement in an earlier manuscript.
With support from
Deloitte
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
-
- Release date
- 4 February 2021
-
- Recording date
- 22 May 2020
-
- Location
- Mauritshuis, The Hague
-
- Flautist
- Marten Root
-
- Harpsichordist
- Menno van Delft
-
- Traverso
- Fridtjof Aurin after Pierre Naust, ca. 1700
-
- Harpsichord
- Bernd Fischer, 1984 after Claude Labrèche
-
- Director and editor
- Gijs Besseling
-
- Music recording
- Daan van Aalst, Bastiaan Kuijt, Pim van der Lee
-
- Music edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
-
- Camera, lights
- Danny Noordanus
-
- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
-
- Producer
- Jessie Verbrugh
-
- Acknowledgement
- Mauritshuis
-
- With support from
- Deloitte
Discover
Help us to complete All of Bach
There are still many recordings to be made before the whole of Bach’s oeuvre is online. And we can’t complete the task without the financial support of our patrons. Please help us to complete the musical heritage of Bach, by supporting us with a donation!