6 Sonatas for harpsichord and violin BWV 1014-1019 by Catherine Manson / Ton Koopman

Catherine Manson / Ton Koopman

6 Sonatas for harpsichord and violin BWV 1014-1019

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917256024
Catnr: CC 72560
Release date: 03 August 2012
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917256024

Catalogue number
CC 72560

Release date
03 August 2012

"Ton Koopman's harpsichord playing, here matched by Catherine Manson in a likewise controlled and stylistically aware performance of the set, is always an inspiration – expresssive in sound an never dull or routine."

Early Music Review, 30-5-2013

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Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

Johann Sebastian Bach
Six Sonatas for Harpsichord and Violin, BWV 1014-1019

By departing in virtually every respect from the conventional model of the baroque trio sonata, Bach’s six sonatas for harpsichord and violin let both instruments participate equally in the unfolding of the thematic-motivic material. They establish a genuine dialog between the two performers as well and, thereby, actually pave the way for the classic duo sonata. The dialog between these two top musicians is equel and enchanting and the intimate nature of this recording draws the listener immediately in the music.

Bach’s violin sonatas, more properly called sonatas for harpsichord and violin, represent a closed set of six works and resemble in this way a number of similar instrumental work groups consisting of half a dozen pieces of the same kind. Take for example the six sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin, the six suites for cello solo, the six English Suites, or the six Brandenburg Concertos—to mention only a few. The concept Bach pursues in these work groups, however, does not aim at a cycle in the sense of a specific sequence in which the pieces are to be performed; it rather follows the principle of systematically exploring the manifold musical possibilities that can be realized in one and the same category of composition. Hence, the single works happen to form a whole, that is, a more or less closed set. If published it would constitute an “opus”, as Bach called the printed edition of his six keyboard partitas of 1731.

The most important feature of Bach’s violin sonatas consisted in their innovative scoring, an absolute novelty at the time of their origin and in many ways the prototype, on which the classical violin-piano sonata of a Mozart and Beethoven would be based. Even though the traditional elements of the Baroque trio sonata for two treble instruments and basso continuo can still be found in a number of movements or sections of movements where the violin and the right hand of the harpsichord form a duo structure over a bass fundament, the prevailing texture of the harpsichord part transcends the trio convention. In the six sonatas BWV 1014-19, the composer Bach single-handedly created a transformation of the genre of violin sonata.

De vernieuwende vioolsonates van Bach
De vioolsonates van Bach zouden eigenlijk beter sonates voor klavecimbel en viool genoemd kunnen worden. In de zes werken neemt Bach afstand van bijna elke conventie van de destijds gebruikelijke vorm van een baroksonate en laat in plaats daarvan beide instrumenten afwisselend op de voorgrond treden. Samen vormen de klavecimbel en de viool een oprechte dialoog waarin de luisteraar in de muziek wordt betrokken. Het was niet ongebruikelijk voor Bach om per zes werken te componeren. Neem bijvoorbeeld zijn zes partita’s voor viool, de zes cellosuites, de zes Engelse suites of de zes Brandenburg Concerten. Deze sets moeten echter niet gezien worden als cycli met een specifieke volgorde, maar als groepen waarin de muzikale mogelijkheden van deze instrumenten verkend worden en zo één geheel vormen.

Eén van de belangrijkste eigenschappen van de vioolsonates zit in de innovatieve notatie van de muziek, die een prototype vormden voor de klassieke viool-piano sonates van Mozart en Beethoven. Ondanks dat de traditionele elementen nog teruggevonden kunnen worden in een aantal delen, ontstijgt de klavecimbel de standaardbegeleidingen van de barokmuziek. In deze zes sonates transformeerde Bach het genre naar een nieuwe tijd.

De muziek wordt uitgevoerd door Catherine Manson op viool en Ton Koopman op klavecimbel. Catherine Manson. Manson geniet een uitgebreide carrière als soliste, kamermusicus en orkestleider. In 2006 werd ze benoemd tot orkestleider van het Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Ton Koopman is een internationale gerespecteerd specialist in barokmuziek en in het bijzonder J.S. Bach en Buxtehude.

Die Geburtsstunde der klassischen Duo-Sonate.

Weil Bach praktisch in allen Gesichtspunkten von der konventionellen Form der barocken Triosonate abweicht, ist es in seinen sechs Sonaten für Violine und Cembalo möglich, beide Instrumente bei der Entfaltung des thematisch-motivischen Materials gleichberechtigt teilhaben zu lassen. Auf diese Weise kann sich auch zwischen den beiden ausführenden Musikern ein echter Dialog entwickeln. Catherine Mason und Ton Koopman tun dies auf beispielhafte Weise.

Artist(s)

Ton Koopman (harpsichord)

Ton Koopman was born in Zwolle in 1944. After a classical education he studied organ, harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam and was awarded the Prix d'Excellence for both instruments. From the beginning of his musical studies he was fascinated by authentic instruments and a performance style based on sound scholarship and in 1969, at the age of 25, he created his first Baroque orchestra. In 1979 he founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra followed by the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1992.
Koopman's extensive and impressive activities as a soloist, accompanist and conductor have been recorded on a large number of LPs and CDs for labels like Erato, Teldec, Sony, Philips and DG, besides his own record label “Antoine Marchand”, distributed by Challenge Records.
Over the course of a forty-five-year career Ton Koopman has appeared in the most important concert halls and festivals of the five continents. As an organist he has performed on the most prestigious historical instruments of Europe, and as a harpsichord player and conductor of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir he has been a regular guest at venues which include the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Philharmonie in Munich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York and leading concert halls in Vienna, London, Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Salzburg, Tokyo and Osaka.
Between 1994 and 2004 Ton Koopman has been engaged in a unique project, conducting and recording all the existing Cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach, a massive undertaking for which he has been awarded the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis "Echo Klassik", the BBC Award 2008, the Prix Hector Berlioz, has been nominated for the Grammy Award (USA) and the Gramophone Award (UK). In 2000 Ton Koopman has received an Honorary Degree from the Utrecht University for his academic work on the Bach Cantatas and Passions and has been awarded both the prestigious Silver Phonograph Prize and the VSCD Classical Music Award. In 2006 he has received the « Bach-Medaille » from the City of Leipzig. Recently Ton Koopman has embarked on another main project: the recording of the whole works by Dietrich Buxtehude, one of the great inspirer of the young J.S. Bach. The recording will be accomplished in 2010 with the release of 30 CDs. Ton Koopman is President of the “International Dieterich Buxtehude Society”. Ton Koopman is very active as a guest conductor and he has collaborated with many prominent orchestras in Europe, USA and Japan. He has been Principal Conductor of the Netherland Radio Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, DSO Berlin, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Cleveland Orchestra, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and Wiener Symphoniker. In the following season he will work on new programmes with the New York Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestra RAI in Turin, Stockholm Philharmonic, Tonhalle in Zurich. After the great success of his tour at the beginning of 2008, Ton Koopman has been nominated Artist in Residence at the Cleveland Orchestra for three consecutive years starting in 2011. Ton Koopman publishes regularly and for a number of years he has been engaged in editing the complete Händel Organ Concertos for Breitkopf & Härtel. Recently he has published Händel’s Messiah and Buxtehude‘s Das Jüngeste Gericht for Carus. Ton Koopman leads the class of harpsichord at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, is Professor at the University of Leiden and is a Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Ton Koopman is artistic director of the French Festival “Itinéraire Baroque”.

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Catherine Manson (violin)

Catherine Manson enjoys a versatile performing career specializing in period performance as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. She was appointed as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 2006 As first violinist of the classical London Haydn Quartet she has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall. The quartet’s series of recordings of the Haydn quartets on the Hyperion label has met with high critical acclaim internationally. Together with Ton Koopman she has recorded all the Buxtehude chamber music. She has appeared frequently as a chamber musician together with such artists as Trevor Pinnock, Anner Bylsma, Malcolm Bilson, Steven Isserlis and Michael Chance, and has also recorded for Hyperion, Dorian, Glossa, ASV...

Catherine Manson enjoys a versatile performing career specializing in period performance as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. She was appointed as leader of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 2006 As first violinist of the classical London Haydn Quartet she has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall. The quartet’s series of recordings of the Haydn quartets on the Hyperion label has met with high critical acclaim internationally.
Together with Ton Koopman she has recorded all the Buxtehude chamber music. She has appeared frequently as a chamber musician together with such artists as Trevor Pinnock, Anner Bylsma, Malcolm Bilson, Steven Isserlis and Michael Chance, and has also recorded for Hyperion, Dorian, Glossa, ASV and Teldec, in addition to many radio recordings and broadcasts worldwide.
She is regularly invited to appear as a guest leader by ensembles including Smithsonian Chamber Players and Santa Fe Pro Musica in the USA, Collegium Vocale, Il Gardellino and Ensemble Explorations in Belgium and the new London-based ensemble Arcangelo.
Teaching has always been an important part of her musical life; in 2001 she co-founded and now directs MusicWorks, a chamber music course for young musicians. In addition to giving classes and seminars at King’s College and the Royal Academy of Music, she has taught at the Baroque Performance Institute in Oberlin College, USA and the Domaine Forget chamber music courses in Canada. On the London Haydn Quartet's recent tour to the USA she gave masterclasses at the Juilliard School and at Yale University. She is on the faculty of the Granada International Festival’s 'Musical Interpretation' course for students interested in further study of period instrument playing.

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Composer(s)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth. Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

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Press

Ton Koopman's harpsichord playing, here matched by Catherine Manson in a likewise controlled and stylistically aware performance of the set, is always an inspiration – expresssive in sound an never dull or routine.
Early Music Review, 30-5-2013

From the very start of BWV 1014, you can feel that this highly disctinctive duo has a good sense of admiration for Bach's inventiveness
BBC Music Magazine, 01-2-2013