Johann Sebastian Bach Sonata in G Major Bwv 1027 a Viola da Gamba et Cembalo Obligato i) Adagio Performer: Andrea De Carlo. Fineline Classics.

Cassandra Luckhardt has established an international reputation as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician and teacher on both cello and viola da gamba. Cassandra has played and recorded as principal cello with The Academy of Ancient Music, Il Complesso Barocco, Les Musiciens du Louvre and as gamba soloist with the King's Consort.

Steven Isserlis and Richard Egarr here assemble all the viola da gamba sonatas written by three composers born in the propitious year of 1685: one each by Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, and three by JS Bach. Isserlis plays them on the gamba’s modern cousin, the cello, and the microphone loves his playing, picking up all the nuances and scampering asides from his soft-spoken instrument which can sometimes get lost in big concert halls. Egarr on harpsichord matches Isserlis’s eloquence and rambunctious energy all the way. The dreamy, airy slow movement of Bach’s Sonata in G minor brings telling use of vibrato as Isserlis circles around Egarr, his playing at once idiomatic and soulful. An extra cellist reinforces the bass line in the Handel and Scarlatti, in which the composers give the harpsichordist only a framework; Egarr’s imaginative realisations ensure that even when Scarlatti is at his most repetitive, he is never dull.

For some time now musicology has widely reviewed the previously long held belief that Johann Sebastian Bach’s chamber output originates mostly from his Köthen period (1717-1723). Although precise dates are still lacking, various clues have led many of his works for one/two instruments and basso continuo or concertante harpsichord to be moved forward to his Leipzig years (1723-1750) and in particular to the decade 1730-1740. This group of works also includes the three sonatas for viola da gamba and ‘obbligato’ harpsichord BWV 1027 in G major, BWV 1028 in D major and BWV 1029 in G minor, again assigned on the basis of clues to the period 1736-1741 .