Output details

CD recording of arrangements of J.S.Bach's Organ Trio Sonatas BWVv 525-530

Less than 1% of Bach’s total compositional output was in the style of the trio sonata, compared to Corelli (66%) and even Vivaldi (3.6%), despite the fact that this genre was one of the most popular in the baroque era. Few original chamber works survive by JS Bach and this prompted me, with my ensemble Florilegium, to increase our chamber music repertoire by adapting and re-arranging these important works. Bach’s six organ trio sonatas, presented here in our own arrangements, are innovative works which make considerable technical demands on the player.

Bach himself reworked early versions of several movements for his organ Trio Sonatas. There are many arrangements of these works, enabling musicians today to perform more of Bach’s output within the chamber music setting. Taking this as our cue, we arranged these works using the instruments at our disposal. The melody lines would be taken by flute, violin, viola, piccolo cello or viola da gamba, and the continuo by lute, harpsichord, cello, viola da gamba or in any combination. All but two keys were altered from those originally used by Bach. This enabled a greater variety of tonal colours for the instruments being used. In making our arrangements we drew upon the scoring in Bach’s Musical Offering Trio Sonata BWV 1079 as well as his sonatas for flute, violin and viola da gamba with obbligato harpsichord. Two of the sonatas are recorded as duo sonatas for flute (BWV 529) or piccolo cello (BWV 527) with obbligato harpsichord, two are for flute, violin and various combinations of continuo instruments (BWVv 525 & 526), and two combine violin with viola da gamba and continuo (BWVv 528 & 530).

The CD has been released on the internationally-distributed Channel Classics label, to critical acclaim.