J.S. BACH Paul Marrion (Double Bass) SUITE NO
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PERFORMERS BY WORK Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor, BWV 1067 Daniel Pailthorpe (flute), Mia Cooper (violin I), Maya Koch (violin II) Douglas Paterson (viola), Bridget MacRae (cello), Paul Marrion (double bass) Concerto in A major for Oboe d’Amore reconstructed from BWV 1055 Emily Pailthorpe (oboe d’amore), Maya Koch (violin I) Mia Cooper (violin II), Douglas Paterson (viola), Joely Koos (cello) J.S. BACH Paul Marrion (double bass) SUITE NO. 2 IN B MINOR FOR FLUTE & STRINGS CONCERTO IN C MINOR FOR OBOE & VIOLIN Concerto in C minor for Oboe and Violin reconstructed from BWV 1060 CONCERTO IN A MAJOR FOR OBOE D'AMORE CONCERTO IN D MINOR FOR TWO VIOLINS Emily Pailthorpe (oboe), Maya Koch (solo violin), Mia Cooper (violin I) BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS NOS. 2, 4, 5 Takane Funatsu (violin II), Douglas Paterson (viola), Bridget MacRae (cello) Paul Marrion (double bass) London Conchord Ensemble Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043 Florian Uhlig, piano Daniel Rowland (solo violin I), Maya Koch (solo violin II) Ursula Gough (violin I), Frances Dewar (violin II), Joël Waterman (viola) Thomas Carroll (cello), Enno Senft (double bass) Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F major, BWV 1047 Nicholas Korth (horn), Daniel Pailthorpe (flute), Emily Pailthorpe (oboe) Maya Koch (solo violin), Daniel Rowland (violin I), Frances Dewar (violin II) Joël Waterman (viola), Thomas Carroll (cello), Enno Senft (double bass) Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G major, BWV 1049 Maya Koch (solo violin), Daniel Pailthorpe (flute I), Magdalena Martinez (flute II) Mia Cooper (violin I), Frances Dewar (violin II), Douglas Paterson (viola) Joely Koos (cello), Paul Marrion (double bass) Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major, BWV 1050 Florian Uhlig (piano), Daniel Pailthorpe (flute), Maya Koch (solo violin) Ursula Gough (violin), Douglas Paterson (viola), Thomas Carroll (cello), Enno Senft (double bass) ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’, from Birthday Cantata BWV 208 arr. Daniel Pailthorpe Daniel Pailthorpe (flute I and II), Thomas Carroll (cello), Florian Uhlig (piano) ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, from Cantata BWV 147 arr. Daniel Pailthorpe Emily Pailthorpe (oboe), Maya Koch (violin I), Ursula Gough (violin II) Douglas Paterson (viola), Thomas Carroll (cello), Enno Senft (double bass), Florian Uhlig (piano) CD 1 CD 2 Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor BWV 1067 Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F major BWV 1047 [1] i Ouverture 6:42 [1] i Allegro 4.21 [2] ii Rondeau 1:47 [2] ii Andante 4.31 [3] iii Sarabande 3:16 [3] iii Allegro assai 2:47 [4] iv Bourée 1:36 Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G major BWV 1049 [5] v Polonaise 3:26 [4] i Allegro 7:03 [6] vi Menuet 1:22 [5] ii Andante 4:31 [7] vii Badinerie 1:28 [6] iii Presto 4:59 Concerto in A major for Oboe d’Amore Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major BWV 1050 (reconstructed from BWV 1055) [7] i Allegro 9:28 [8] i Allegro 4:17 [8] ii Affettuoso 6.35 [9] ii Larghetto 5:15 [9] iii Allegro 5:29 [10] iii Allegro ma non tanto 4:13 [10] “Sheep May Safely Graze”, from Cantata BWV 208 Concerto in C minor for Oboe and Violin arr. Daniel Pailthorpe 4:48 (reconstructed from BWV 1060) [11] i Allegro 5:01 [11] “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”, from Cantata BWV 147 [12] ii Adagio 5:36 arr. Daniel Pailthorpe 2:49 [13] iii Allegro 3:39 Concerto in D minor for Two Violins BWV 1043 [14] i Vivace 3:41 [15] ii Largo ma non troppo 6:55 [16] iii Allegro 4:57 FOREWORD “The pieces on this disc are perhaps most familiar to listeners today played by a Conchord’s selection of instrumental music by Johann Sebastian Bach is almost soloist, or group of soloists, accompanied by an orchestral-sized string section. There entirely made up of concertos, the only exception being the opening work which is a is much to suggest, however, that Bach’s original conception of these purely concerto in all but name – the SUITE IN B MINOR BWV 1067, with a prominent part instrumental works was closer to chamber music than the conventional concerto. for flute. Bach can hardly be accused of being the most fashion-led of composers – Given the small forces and chamber-sized venues that Bach had at his disposal at his music was viewed as outmoded by his contemporaries – but in this case he was Cöthen and in Leipzig, the terms Concerto and Orchestral Suite are perhaps writing music for an instrument which had become enormously popular by the 1730s. misleading in this context. Indeed, there is nothing in the autographs of these works The transverse flute was the instrument of choice among fashionable French society, to suggest that Bach intended anything other than one player to a part. and Bach may have composed the solo part for the French flautist Pierre-Gabriel Performing the pieces in this way has certainly been a revelation in terms of clarity Buffardin who was part of the all-star international orchestra at the nearby court of of counterpoint and ease of balance. As a soloist, there is never any need to force, Dresden. and much more subtle nuances can be effected than is ever the case with an This kind of suite itself has its origins in the courtly world of French opera and orchestral-sized ‘ripieno’. Such is the complexity of this music that every line is in ballet. It always began with a large movement in the style of a French overture: a itself a melody, and a rich texture is built up by each individual line alone. Whatever poised opening section with slow music in a dotted rhythm leading to a faster exact forces Bach had in mind, from a modern performer’s perspective, the very section where the instruments imitate each other, before returning to a modified complexity of the music makes a strong case that ‘less is more’. version of the opening. In this example, the way Bach changes the time signature Playing Bach on our modern instruments, we have nevertheless attempted to capture from 4/4 to 3/4 time at its return is the inventive masterstroke of a masterful what is best about period instrument practice, namely purity of phrasing and composer who was rarely content to accept a conventional form at face value. economy of vibrato, whilst enjoying the full tonal capability that our modern After the overture comes a succession of elegant, stylised dance movements. The instruments can give.” German version of the suite had taken a more fixed form by this stage, but Bach revelled in the freedom that this Frenchified form allowed by composing a series of Daniel Pailthorpe light and varied movements, leading with seeming inevitability to the famous Flautist, London Conchord Ensemble Badinerie. In our own day it has interrupted many a serene train journey as a mobile phone ringtone; here the Badinerie is restored to its original place as the crowning glory of Bach’s finest work for flute. But was it always meant as such? According to one school of thought, the last surviving set of parts written out by Bach and copyists leave some tell-tale signs that the suite has an earlier version in the key of A minor which was probably meant for for most of his career as an organist, it’s worth remembering that Bach was a fine the violin. So it might be worth treading carefully. violin player as well. We have that on the good authority of his son Carl Philipp Emmanuel, who wrote: “In his youth, and well into old age, he played the violin with If this is the case, it’s by no means the only example. Bach was perfectly happy to a clear, penetrating tone.” revise his own compositions as well as those by other composers, when a new opportunity to perform them arose. Thank goodness for us that he did, because in If a Leipzig coffee house was one of Bach’s regular performing venues, another venue some cases it is only the revisions that survive. The next two works on the CD are on a much grander scale was the Spiegalsaal or mirror-lined throne room in the palace fine examples: the CONCERTO FOR OBOE D’AMORE BWV 1055 and the CONCERTO FOR at Cöthen. Bach spent six years as Kapellmeister there as a younger man, composing OBOE AND VIOLIN BWV 1060 would have been lost for ever had it not been for the some of his greatest instrumental music during that period. And it was there that arrangements that Bach had made for the Leipzig Collegium Musicum which he Bach probably wrote all of the concertos in this selection. That much is certainly true directed throughout the 1730s. Despite its serious-sounding title, the Collegium of the three BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS on disc two, composed as part of a failed job Musicum was an informal affair, a regular weekly get-together of musicians, either in application for a post at another court, that of the Margrave of Brandenburg. The the congenial ambiance of Gottfried Zimmermann’s coffee house on winter evenings, CONCERTO NO.2 calls for an astonishingly disparate line-up of soloists; violin, oboe, or outdoors on summer afternoons. The image of Bach getting together with members recorder, and an instrument that Bach referred to as a tromba. Trumpeters have of his family and friends to perform in an informal setting gets a persuasive modern happily seized on this part as their own, but it’s just possible that Bach had the horn counterpart in the one-to-a-part string section of this recording.