Description

Erato: Bach — The Sonatas for Viola da Gamba, Paul Tortelier & Robert Veyron-Lacroix Audio CD

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

Product Type: Audio CD (Historical Reissue)
Brand / Label: Erato / Warner Classics (The Erato Story)
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Performers: Paul Tortelier (violoncello/cello), Robert Veyron-Lacroix (clavecin/harpsichord)
Original Recording: 1963 (Erato Disques)
This Edition: 2016 (Parlophone Records Limited / Warner Music Group)
Genre: Classical, Baroque
Style: Chamber Music, Viola da Gamba Sonata
Catalog Number: 0825646419029
UPC: 0825646419029
Condition: Factory Sealed

Product Features

Format: CD
Discs: 1
Tracks: 11
Total Runtime: 46:15
Part of "The Erato Story" reissue series
Packaging: Standard jewel case, factory shrink-wrapped

Overview

Three Bach gamba sonatas in 46 minutes — recorded in 1963 by Paul Tortelier and Robert Veyron-Lacroix for Erato, and reissued here as part of Warner Classics' Erato Story series. These are historically significant recordings: Tortelier was one of the great French cellists of the 20th century, and his approach to the gamba sonatas — played here on cello rather than the original viol — carries an authority and vocal warmth that few later recordings have matched.

The three sonatas (BWV 1027 in G major, BWV 1028 in D major, BWV 1029 in G minor) are among Bach's most intimate chamber works. They were written for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord — meaning the keyboard part is fully written out and treated as an equal voice, not mere accompaniment. Veyron-Lacroix understood this perfectly: his harpsichord playing is genuinely conversational, meeting Tortelier's cello line as a partner rather than a backdrop.

The G minor Sonata BWV 1029 is the most substantial of the three, with a slow movement (Adagio) that runs over six minutes and ranks among the most beautiful things Bach wrote for any combination of instruments. The D major BWV 1028 has a particularly luminous third movement Andante. The 1963 mono or early stereo source has been cleanly transferred for this 2016 Erato edition, and the playing remains entirely compelling more than six decades after it was made.

Interesting Facts

Paul Tortelier (1914–1990) was a French cellist who performed and taught at the highest international level for five decades; he was also an accomplished composer and a larger-than-life personality who counted Pablo Casals among his mentors.
Robert Veyron-Lacroix (1922–1991) was a French harpsichordist closely associated with the early music revival in France in the postwar decades; he collaborated extensively with Tortelier and also with flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Bach's three gamba sonatas are unusual in requiring a fully obbligato harpsichord part — the keyboard and string instrument are structurally equal throughout, anticipating the duo sonata form that would become standard in the Classical period.
BWV 1027, the G major Sonata, is a transcription of Bach's Trio Sonata for two flutes and continuo (BWV 1039) — one of several cases where Bach recycled his own material into new instrumental combinations.
The viola da gamba, a fretted bowed string instrument tuned differently from the modern cello, fell out of common use by the late 18th century; Bach's gamba sonatas survive as among the last great works composed for the instrument.
"The Erato Story" reissue series from Warner Classics focuses on landmark recordings from the Erato Disques catalogue dating back to the label's founding in 1953, preserving performances that defined French classical recording in the postwar era.