Johann Sebastian Bach
According to Lydia Goehr’s well-known thesis, a «work» is a regulative concept, in that it guides action and determines our judgment. Moreover, it is a concept that would have arisen circa 1800, linked to the music of Beethoven. Surrounding the «work» concept, other ideas crystallized which, since then, have been regarded as integral to great music. Such independence has not always been considered an essential element of music deemed to be of value. In Bach’s time, music was still expected to convey moral, doctrinal, religious, or at least sentimental meaning. Its value depended on it. It’s no coincidence that Bach associated music with rhetoric, since the musician, like the speaker, was expected to have the ability to move and touch his audience. It was also valued for music to have a pedagogical function. Pieces intended for apprentices were not considered mere technical exercises, but rather works that could also have interest and charm. Another connotation entailed by the normative concept of «work» is the fixed and unalterable character that was attributed to a piece of music, a connotation that was counterbalanced by the almost sacred fidelity that the performer was expected to keep to the score. By contrast, in the 18th century, music was essentially flexible and adaptable. Composers and musicians did not hesitate to alter the music whenever they deemed it appropriate. Pieces were adapted to instruments, performers, circumstances, venues, audiences, etc.
Johann Sebastian Bach himself is a good example of this conception of the musical work, far from the conceptual changes introduced by Romantic aesthetics. His arrangements of pieces by others and by himself are well known. He arranged concertos by Vivaldi, Marcello, and Telemann for organ; he turned oboe and violin concertos into harpsichord concertos; he transformed movements of concertos into cantata choruses; he reused and adapted vocal compositions in order to include them in other vocal compositions, etc. Notwithstanding, the intrinsic values – both formal and expressive – that his compositions display, Bach always carefully considered the characteristics of the instruments for which his arrangements were intended, even though he often pushed them to the limits of their possibilities. The idea of absolute music, valuable beyond any interpretative context, was far from his conceptual horizon.
Sonata BWV 1030
The present recording includes one of these arrangements by Bach himself. It is a version of the BWV 1030 sonata in B minor for flute and obbligato harpsichord, a work that is central to the flute players’ repertoire canon. An autograph score by Bach himself of the sonata BVW 1030 for flute and harpsichord is preserved, and presumably he wrote it around 1736/37, during Bach’s last years as conductor of the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. The existence of several copying errors, due to the transcription process, suggests that it is an arrangement of an earlier version. Of this version a harpsichord part is preserved, written in G minor, and its title page reads: «G. moll / Sonata / al / Cembalo obligato / e / Flauto traverso / composta / da / Giov. Seb. Bach.». However, if we transpose the flute part of the BWV 1030 sonata from B minor to G minor, the resulting register is too low for a flute of the time, so it has been conjectured that the first version may have been intended for oboe. This is a valid hypothesis, as Bach, like any 18th-century musician, adapted to the idiosyncrasies of the instrument for which he was writing: keys with sharps, such as B minor, work best for flute, while keys with flats, such as G minor, work best for oboe.
The BWV 1030a sonata is a good example of the challenging pieces Bach composed from the 1730s onwards. Its structural ambition, richness of ideas, technical difficulty, and expressive depth have led many scholars to argue that it is one of Bach’s best chamber music works. It’s divided into three movements instead of four, as is the case with the sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord BWV 1014-1019. This brings the sonata BWV 1030a closer to the concerto model than to the sonata da Chiesa format, which has a slow first movement, followed by a fast one, another slow one, and a final allegro. In fact, what Bach accomplished in this sonata was to blur the boundaries between genres, mixing elements of the solo concerto, the trio sonata, the solo sonata with continuo accompaniment, and even of imitative counterpoint. The first movement of the BWV 1030a sonata, «Andante», takes the form of an extended concerto movement in which the oboe seemingly never rests, while the harpsichord interacts with it in a variety of elaborate ways. The second movement, «Largo e dolce», adopts the format of an oboe solo in the style of an expressive aria, in which the harpsichord remains in the background so as not to detract from the oboe’s prominence. The final movement, «Presto», presents an unusual structure, as it is divided into two distinct sections: a fugue and a dance movement in the manner of a gigue. The juxtaposition of contrapuntal writing and virtuosity, along with the energy that emanates from this last movement, serves as an effective climax to the entire sonata.
Trio Sonatas BWV 525 to 530
This CD also illustrates how present-day musicians can arrange Bach’s compositions in accordance to his teachings, beyond the narrow limits set by the ideal of fidelity to the score. With good criteria, Il Maniatico Ensemble has arranged the six sonatas BWV 525 to 530, originally intended for organ, adapting them to an ensemble consisting of oboe, keyboard (harpsichord or organ), and cello.
It is estimated that the collection of sonatas BWV 525 to 530 was composed in Leipzig between 1727 and 1730. A number of its movements are known to have been derived from cantatas, organ pieces, and chamber works that have not been preserved. Only the sixth sonata, BWV 530, was written entirely with new music. Two main sources of these sonatas have survived: Bach’s autograph scores and a copy started by his son Wilhelm Friedemann and continued by Anna Magdalena, Johann Sebastian’s second wife. Both sources are nowadays kept in the Berlin State Library, and the title reads: «Sonata […] a 2 Clav: & Pedal di J. S. Bach».
In composing these organ sonatas, Bach’s model was the Italian «trio sonata» genre of the first half of the 18th century. This explains why the scores are written on three separate staves: the two upper staves are meant for the high-pitched melodic parts (the two manual keyboards) and the lower staff for the bass (the pedalboard). According to Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Johann Sebastian Bach’s biographer, the Eisenach composer wrote these sonatas for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, with a pedagogical function. In fact, not only did Wilhelm Friedmann make use of these compositions, but Johann Sebastian also used them to perfect his students at the keyboard, as they are excellent exercises for working on the independence of the hands and feet.
Given their writing in three independent voices, the sonatas BWV 525 to 530 seem to have been originally conceived for two melodic instruments (violins, flutes, oboes, etc.) and basso continuo. In fact, some of their movements seem to stem from chamber music composed during Bach’s Cöthen and Weimar years. Therefore, it’s not surprising that many of these works have been arranged as trio sonatas. However, they also work perfectly if played with a melodic instrument, such as the oboe, an obbligato keyboard (harpsichord or organ), and a cello. This is the option that Il Maniatico Ensemble has chosen for the present recording: the oboe plays one melodic line, the harpsichord or organ plays the second melodic line and the basso continuo, while the cello occasionally reinforces the bass that the organist would originally play on the pedalboard. This is not a gratuitous or extravagant choice, since there are several cases of similar arrangements in Bach’s output. For instance, of the sonata BWV 1039 for two flutes and basso continuo there is a later version, the sonata BWV 1027, intended for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord. In this second version, the viola da gamba plays the role of the second flute, while the harpsichord plays the first flute part with the right hand and the basso continuo part with the left hand. There is also the example of the BWV 1044 concerto for flute, violin and harpsichord, in which the middle movement, «Adagio e dolce» in F major, is taken precisely from the organ sonata BWV 527, while the harpsichord prelude from BWV 894 served as the base for the first movement.
The six sonatas BWV 525 to 530 are structured in three movements that follow a fast-slow-fast sequence. Only the first movement of the fourth sonata, BWV 528, is structured in two sections: a short Adagio and a Vivace. Werner Breig has suggested that the sonatas can be divided into two distinct groups. The first, consisting of the first, third and fourth sonatas, features a first and last movements in fugato style. The second group, consisting of the second, fifth, and sixth sonatas, resemble more the concerto style, with contrasting tutti and solo sections in the initial movements. Because of this, it has sometimes been claimed that these sonatas are an example of the genre called in Germany «Sonaten auf Concertenart» («sonatas in concert style»), a hybrid genre between the sonata and the concerto that was cultivated between 1720 and 1740.
ll Maniatico Ensemble
This is an open, flexible and interdisciplinary group directed by the eclectic oboist and conductor Robert Silla. It is named after the symphony Il Maniatico (1780) by Cayetano Brunetti, a musician of reference for the group. This symphony seems to have been inspired by the «sainete» El maniático (1773) by the Madrid based playwright Ramón de la Cruz. Together with IBS Classical, Il Maniatico Ensemble has recorded the unpublished collection of Cayetano Brunetti’s six sextets for oboe and string quintet, a true gem of the chamber music repertoire and a crucial part of Spanish musical heritage that had gone unnoticed until now. The recording of Brunetti’s sextets has obtained unanimous critical acclaim, receiving the «Exceptional» label from Scherzo magazine, the «Gold Label» from Melómano magazine, «5 Diapasons» from the prestigious French magazine Diapason, as well as the first Anaclase prize. The ensemble combines 18th-century repertoire and contemporary works, seeking to escape from the boundaries that artificially divide the world of music.
