Bach's violin sonatas

These were pioneering works in their day, so we learned. Adrian Butterfield from London---with Luc Beauséjour from Montreal playing the obbligato harpsichord part---introduced and played all six of them, during two concerts at Dominion Chalmers. I was at both concerts.

Bach himself knew how to play both instruments and was one of the most talented keyboard players of all time, said Mr. Butterfield. In these works, the harpsichord and violin have equal prominence; this was new. In effect, they are trios, with the violinist playing the first part and the two hands of the pianist taking the other two parts. Some of the slow movements are more like duets, the left hand of the piano merely providing a continuo bass accompaniment.

Handel also wrote sonatas of this kind, but of a different character. Handel gives us human drama, whereas Bach "takes us out of this world."

In the B minor Sonata, the violin enters very softly on a sustained note. Its 3rd movement gives the violin part the brilliance of the trumpet obbligato in The Trumpet Shall Sound from Handel's Messiah (my opinion).

The first movement of the A major Sonata is an "ethereal" piece of music. The 3rd movement is a canon, except that the harpsichordist cannot sustain his long notes, so they become trills, instead of dying away quickly. The fourth movement of this one is fast.

Sonata number 3 in E major has very different parts for the two instruments. I thought its first movement reminiscent of Bach's accompaniments to the slow, religious arias for solo voice. The violinist called the 2nd movement "lively and uplifting" and the C-sharp minor slow movement "expressive". I could have listened to it for longer, but was jerked out of that state of mind by the last movement with its very fast tempo, in 2s and 3s.

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Once again bringing his Baroque bow with him for the second recital, Mr. Butterfield pointed out that the sound of the first movement from the C minor Sonata, with its alternating slow and fast movements, is very similar to the violin obbligato line for the aria Erbarme Dich in the St. Matthew Passion. In the second of the slow movements, the violin itself seems to take the alto part with its chorale like accompaniment to the triplets played on the harpsichord. I noticed that the string player avoided vibrato for the most part, which is like a piano player avoiding the sustaining pedal for Bach, in keeping with  the period sound.

The F minor Sonata also starts with a slow movement, the violin part "singing" in a remarkably low register after the keyboard introduction. In the second movement, the voices of the two instruments imitate one another. Then follows music where the violin plays chords (double stopping), the harpsichord line moving around them. The final movement for this sonata is a passe-pied minuet with the violinist playing off the beat. "Surprisingly humorous," he called it, "for F-minor". I listened out for the humour but didn't quite catch it.

Mr. Butterfield mentioned that a member of the audience had lent him her instrument for this performance and that Luc had learned the harpsichord part at short notice, which was "quite a feat" --- I'd say so!

Bach's 6th and final violin sonata, in G major, was unexpectedly in five movements. The middle one is a harpsichord solo, reminding me of his 2-part Inventions. The violinist felt that the fourth movement was "incredibly" ahead of its time, reminiscent of moments from Beethoven's late quartets. This was a lovely, minor section of the work. The merry Gigue with which this sonata ended broke the sombre spell.