Bach: Works for Viola da gamba

Bach: Works for Viola da gamba Review

Bach: Works for Viola da gamba Overview

Bach must be one of the most "arranged" composers around but then he himself was not averse to carrying out some nifty adaptations of his own works and those of others. Here, viola da gamba player Hille Perl awards herself some extra Bach repertoire by appropriating the Fifth Solo Cello Suite, by transforming a sonata for violin and keyboard into one for gamba and lute (no doubt encouraged by the fact that Bach had himself reworked it from a lute suite by his contemporary Silvius Leopold Weiss), and by opening up one of Bach's sonatas for gamba and harpsichord into a concerto-like piece for violin, gamba and continuo. With Bach having only left three sonatas for her instrument, who can blame her? The results are both convincing and enlightening: the cello suite is much less angular on the resonant gamba, its spread chords coming over as more natural; the "Weiss" finds a new gentleness and lyricism; and the sonata acquires a foot-tapping Brandenburg-ish feel. Above all, however, one gets the enjoyable impression here of a sensitive musician in love with Bach's music and even more in love with playing it both on her own and with others, a feeling greatly enhanced by her refreshingly thoughtful but unpretentious insert-notes on matters of interpretation. --Lindsay Kemp

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