Bach Adagios

Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751), Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768), Alessandro Marcello (1684-1750), Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770).

Recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the iconic Abbey Road Studios, Elizabeth Sombarts new album focusses on the ever-popular Adagios and slow movements from the great piano concerto repertoire. This 2-CD set spans centuries of keyboard repertoire, presenting the works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov, Grieg, Ravel, Brahms, Chopin and contemporary composer Pierre Adolphe.

An impressive cast of conductors is featured in this collection of the best slow movements performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker! Judge for yourselves: Simon Rattle, André Cluytens, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lorin Maazel, John Barbirolli, Wilhelm Furtwängler… Take your time to discover this compendium of the best adagios in classical music, from the grandiose symphonies of Bruckner, Mahler and Beethoven to the moving concertos of Bach, Grieg and Sibelius, and of course Barber’s unmissable Adagio for Strings.

All but the last of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas for violin and harpsichord (BWV 1014–19) commence with slow movements of intense feeling. This is music of implication and inference, the emotions no less real for their apparent lack of specificity. There is pleasure in the paradox: even without a text, the music sings. The copying and the performance of these sonatas were crucial to the mission of memorialising Bach’s music, but not merely as a matter of historical interest or archival fastidiousness.

All but the last of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas for violin and harpsichord (BWV 1014–19) commence with slow movements of intense feeling. This is music of implication and inference, the emotions no less real for their apparent lack of specificity. There is pleasure in the paradox: even without a text, the music sings. The copying and the performance of these sonatas were crucial to the mission of memorialising Bach’s music, but not merely as a matter of historical interest or archival fastidiousness. C. P. E. Bach described these works as among the best works of his 'dear departed father': they still sound very good and give me much joy, although they date back more than fifty years. They contain some Adagios that could not be written in a more singable manner today.' C. P. E. Bach’s well-worn copy of the Sonatas shows that he played them frequently. In this recording, Tuija Hakkila plays a copy of a Gottfried Silbermann 1747 fortepiano by Andrea Restelli. J. S. Bach played one of his fortepianos in 1747 in Potsdam for Frederick the Great and his court musicians. In his last years Bach even seems to have served as a dealer for Silbermann’s fortepianos in Leipzig.

Yuuko Shiokawa and András Schiff are heard here in an insightful programme of sonatas for violin and piano which begins with Bach’s Sonata No.3 in E major, ends with Beethoven’s Sonata No.10 in G major, and has at its centre Busoni’s Sonata No. 2 in E minor. As on their earlier and widely-admired recording for ECM (featuring Schubert Fantasies), Shiokawa and Schiff play the music with absolute authority and deep understanding.