6 reviews for 258 CD / Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonatas for violin and harpsichord BWV 1014 – 1019

1. artalinna.com – 6. January 2022

   –> Critique original

   Le Disque du Jour

   Un parfum de nostalgie a dû envahir la Jesus-Christus-Kirche de Berlin-Dahlem à l’automne 2018. Qui jouait ainsi les Sonates pour violon et clavecin de Bach ? Wolfgang Schneiderhahn et Helmut Walcha ? Non, Daniel Gaede et Raphael Alpermann. Leur jeu paraît intemporel, ils savent mettre du sentiment (le Largo de la Sonate en ut mineur), et introduire un giocoso spirituel dans les éléments rhétoriques, leur Bach danse et s’émeut, dans une modestie du son qui est une vertu : on est entre soi, on joue l’un pour l’autre, l’idée du concert serait incongrue. Le texte jaillit, les polyphonies irradient, au point que souvent s’enlacent en majesté trois voix sinon trois instruments. Le cahier s’écoute d’une traite, intemporel déjà dans cette lecture comme venue d’un autre temps alors qu’elle a fait son miel des interprétations historiquement informées. L’album rappelle au passage quel grand claveciniste est.
   Raphael Alpermann

   English Translation

   --> original review.

   Record of the Day

   A whiff of nostalgia must have pervaded Berlin-Dahlem's Jesus-Christus-Kirche in autumn 2018. Who was playing Bach's Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord? Wolfgang Schneiderhahn and Helmut Walcha? No, Daniel Gaede and Raphael Alpermann. Their playing seems timeless, they know how to add feeling (the Largo of the Sonata in C minor), and introduce a spiritual giocoso into the rhetorical elements, their Bach dances and moves, in a modesty of sound that is a virtue: we are among ourselves, we play for each other, the idea of a concert would be incongruous. The text gushes forth, the polyphony radiates, to the point where often three voices, if not three instruments, are entwined in majesty. The work can be listened to in one go, already timeless in this reading that seems to have come from another time, even though it has made the most of historically informed interpretations. The album is a reminder of what a great harpsichordist he is.
   Raphael Alpermann

2. hören & fühlen – 5. December 2021

   --> see original review (in German)

3. audio – 1. November 2021

   The copy of the original score by Bach's son-in-law Johann Christoph Altnikol was called "Six Trios for Clavier and the Violin" - an indication that Bach composed the keys as equal partners to the violin. If there is any criticism to be made of this outstanding recording, it is that the full and beautiful-sounding harpsichord (including the lute-train Adagio BWV 1018) with the confidently shaping Raphael Alpermann seems a bit too quiet and is not introduced in the accompanying text. Daniel Gaede fiddles historically informed, with little vibrato and as contrasting as expressive. He presents the sometimes joyful, sometimes dance-like, sometimes melancholy, sometimes dreamy, sometimes yearning movements in their diversity. The musical interlocking of the voices in linear counterpoint succeeds excellently.
   Lothar Brandt

4. klassik.com – 13. August 2021

   --> original review

5. Journal Frankfurt 07/2021 – 1. July 2021

   One and a half hours of sonatas for violin and harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach are something for experienced specialists:inside, who love the complexity of the baroque tonality and its disciplined formal rigor. With tears in their enraptured eyes, they may also admire listening to the legendary sound of the Jesus Christ Church in Berlin-Dahlem, which violinist Daniel Gaede and harpsichordist Raphael Alpermann have chosen for their recording.
   cru

6. Pizzicato – 23. June 2021

   --> original review

   The six sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord provide a cycle that feeds on the idea of exploring the manifold possibilities of the type rather than on the inevitability of the order. As such, they are among the finest chamber works from Bach’s pen. This cycle of six works accompanied Bach for a long time, as can be seen, for example, from the surviving versions of the G major sonata with and, so to speak, he also inserted contemporary taste. The largely adhered to structure with four movements offers in the slow movements the possibility to show moods. The fast movements, on the other hand, rely on elements such as contrapuntal mastery. Also noteworthy is the use of the obbligato harpsichord, which gives the player in the right hand an elaborate concertante part.

   Daniel Gaede on violin and Raphael Alpermann on harpsichord present these works in a very eloquent manner, which may allude to the fact that Bach himself often played them with his children or friends as house music, which on the other hand also becomes clear in the repeated arrangements and certainly also improvements. Even if the harpsichordist has the leading role, the performance lives from the collaboration of the two musicians. If one compares their playing with that of Reinhard Goebel and Robert Hill, recorded in the mid-eighties of the last century, the completely different expressive approach becomes clear. While Goebel & Hill offer a busy, somewhat mechanical or brittle style, especially in the fast movements, Gaede & Alpermann dare to let the music be music and simply let it sound beautiful. Perhaps someone would like to object that this may well lead to excessive expressiveness. But I do not get this impression, rather the two interpreters succeed fantastically in enlivening the baroque forms with their sensitively portioned expressive possibilities in such a way that they not only offer the listener a pleasure, but also make it possible to experience the quality of the compositions.
   Uwe Krusch