Paola Perrucci - Works for Harp - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Mamlok - Chamber Works [COMPACT DISCS] date 07/08/2014

Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari studied in Naples before finding esteem in the Parisian musical world of the late 1780s. Fleeing the Revolution he settled in London. His compositions divide equally between vocal and chamber music, but also include two piano concertos. His Four Duets for Piano and Harp reveal clearly the main features of his art easy melodic grace founded on his studies with Paisiello, high musical quality, formal balance, and a veneration of Haydn and Mozart. Intended for professionals and amateurs alike, slow movements are expressive and rondos full of vigor. In this recording original instruments are used to do full justice to the period timbre of Ferrari's dialogues between fortepiano and harp.

There are many questions surrounding Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Six Solos for violin', or the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, as they are usually called today. When did he compose them, and why, and for whom? In what circumstances were they performed? And why would a master of polyphony choose to write for a melody instrument with limited scope for polyphony or chords? We can only guess at the answers - which makes the works all the more fascinating. The legendary violinist George Enescu famously described the set as 'the Himalayas of violinists', but for more than 200 years they were primarily regarded as pedagogical exercises rather than compositions worthy of the concert hall. Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann tried to popularize them by making versions with piano accompaniment, while Busoni did away with the violin altogether in his transcription of the famous Chaconne from Partita No. 2. But since Yehudi Menuhin made the first complete recording of the Sonatas and Partitas, between 1929 and 1936, they have become a staple during violin recitals, on album and in concert. Fascinating performers and audiences alike with their architectural perfection as well as their emotional range, these are works that lend themselves to very different interpretations, and on this recording it is the Bach of Finnish violinist Jaakko Kuusisto we hear. Himself a composer - as well as violinist and conductor - Kuusisto remembers beginning to study individual movements from the set at the age of ten. The music has been with him ever since, and to him 'no other works for the violin provide a higher challenge or greater beauty'.