musica Dei donum
CD reviews
"The Bach Dynasty"
Jocelyn Sakaï, transverse flutea;
Guillaume Cuiller, oboeb;
Atsushi Sakaï, celloc;
Christophe Rousset, harpsichordd
Les Talens Lyriques
Dir: Christophe Rousset
rec: Jan 2007, Paris, Temple Saint-Pierre
Ambroisie - AM 125 (© 2007) (61'26")
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750):
Concerto for harpsichord, oboe, strings and bc in d minor (BWV 1059)bd;
Carl Philipp Emanuel BACH (1714-1788):
Concerto for cello, strings and bc in A (Wq 172 / H 439)c;
Symphony for strings and bc in C (Wq 182,3 / H 659);
Wilhelm Friedemann BACH (1710-1784):
Concerto for transverse flute, strings and bc in D (BR WFB C15)a
The title of this disc is well-chosen: the Bach's were a large family, and they were active as
musicians for four generations. The fifth is represented by just one musician: Wilhelm Friedrich
Ernst, son of Johann Sebastian's second-youngest son, Johann Christoph Friedrich. But he was of
relatively little importance and with him the name Bach disappeared from the music scene.
Reinhard Goebel once described Johann Sebastian Bach as "a great German oak, who cast a mighty
shadow – a shadow that enshrouded not only his contemporaries but the rest of the Bach family in
darkness". That is certainly right in that for most people 'Bach' means 'Johann Sebastian'. Even
though the members of the Bach family of previous generations and Johann Sebastian's sons are
getting more and more attention, they are still in the oak's shadow. And Bach's sons Wilhelm
Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel themselves felt being overshadowed by their father too. The
latter told Johann Sebastian's first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, that they had "necessarily
to choose their own kind of style because they never would have matched their father in his style".
This disc demonstrates the changes in style between the father and these two sons. The programme
opens with one of Johann Sebastian's harpsichord concertos. There are eight of them (apart from six
concertos for two, three or four harpsichords), and they are mostly arrangements of concertos which
Bach originally wrote for, in particular, the violin and the oboe. Christophe Rousset has chosen the
Concerto in d minor (BWV 1059), which is the most problematic of all, as the autograph is
very incomplete: only nine bars have been preserved. But those are enough to conclude that Bach has
arranged here the Sinfonia which opens his cantata Geist und Seele wird verwirret (BWV 35),
and there is general agreement that the Sinfonia at the beginning of the second part of this cantata
has been the model for the concluding fast movement. It is assumed Bach arranged the first aria with
obbligato organ from this same cantata as the slow second movement, but as here too much
reconstruction is needed, in most modern performances a transitional cadence is played, like in the
3rd Brandenburg Concerto. That is also the case here.
Christophe Rousset is an accomplished harpsichordist and his ensemble has demonstrated its quality
in a number of fine opera recordings. But in this work by Bach I find them disappointing. The main
reason is that the ensemble is too large: five first violins, four second violins, two violas and
four cellos. The harpsichord concertos are assumed to be performed by Bach in Leipzig, mostly in
rather small venues, like the Café Zimmermann. It is likely the number of players was generally very
small, probably just one player per part. The sound of the ensemble is even further blown up by the
large reverberation of the church where this recording was made. I also find the playing of
Christophe Rousset too mechanical. Gustav Leonhardt, with his Leonhardt Consort, still is the first
choice here.
In the other works the size of the orchestra is much more appropriate, but here the acoustics also
have a negative influence on the performance. Under such circumstances the articulation has to be
sharper than it is here. That is a general problem in these performances anyway. That also means
that the performance of the Concerto for cello, strings and bc in A (Wq 172 / H 439) is not
ideal. It has a bit of a slow start, as the first movement is too bland. The other two movements are
better, but even though Atsushi Sakaï plays well, in particular in the last movement, Alison
McGillivray (with the English Concert on Harmonia mundi) is definitely better, because of a clearer
articulation, more differentiation and a much better acoustical environment.
The best part of this disc is the performance of the Symphony for strings and bc in C (Wq 182,3 /
H 659), the third from a collection of six. These are very characteristic of Carl Philipp
Emanuel's style. Their influence went as far as Felix Mendelssohn in his symphonies for strings. The
twists and turns of this symphony are well realised by Les Talens Lyriques.
The last piece, the Concerto for transverse flute and orchestra in D (BR WFB C15) by Wilhelm
Friedemann, is the least-known item on this disc. It has been recently discovered, as it was part of
the archive of the Berlin Singakademie, which disappeared during World War II and was located in
Kiev in 1999. Of all the sons of Bach Wilhelm Friedemann remains stylistically most close to his
father. His oeuvre shows a kind of conflict between 'old' and 'new'. This concerto is an example:
the flute part is certainly not baroque anymore, especially as it moves through two octaves within a
short span of time. But the thematic material isn't exactly easy on the ear, as so much music of the
time. The largo is unusually long, and the players need great skills to keep the attention of the
audience. The players here don't quite succeed in that, I'm afraid. Here again better recordings are
available, by Musica antiqua Köln ('Bachiana' – Archiv) or by the Freiburger Barockorchester
(Carus).
A programme like this could have been much more interesting if the choice of compositions had been
more adventurous, the music had been recorded in a more suitable venue and the performance had been
more differentiated and rhetorical. Three of the four works on this disc are available in better
performances. That is not a great score.
Johan van Veen (© 2009)