Sebastian Bach’s six
sonatas for violin and harpsichord,
although missing the single line bass
instrument, are in fact trio sonatas
in form, and surviving copies (Bach’s
originals have been lost) title the
works as "trios." In this
case the harpsichord provides the two
lower voices.
There are dozens of
fine recordings of these works, spanning
over a fifty year period or more, so
it takes something special to make yet
another new recording of them of interest.
This performance succeeds in that regard
not so much by what these artists do,
but in what they do not do. To wit,
many performances that I have heard
in the past rely on overly maudlin interpretations
of the slow movements (especially the
largo of BWV 1017 which was to reappear
as the aria Erbarme dich in the
St. Matthew Passion,) and to be too
overtly virtuosic in the faster movements.
Ehnes and Beauséjour
eschew the tendency to be too romantic
and play these works with a marvelous
combination of serenity, spirituality
and joy. Although he plays a modern
violin, James Ehnes is quite sensitive
to baroque performance practice, avoiding
heavy vibrato and playing with what
sounds to me like a lighter bow arm,
not bearing down on the strings so hard
as to make the sound Brahmsian, for
example. Mr. Beauséjour is a
fine duo partner, fleet of finger and
producing a rich tone and fine accompaniment
to Ehnes’ lovely cantabile. Both gentlemen
get around quite adroitly in the faster
movements as well.
I was also impressed
that the recording engineers did not
mic the harpsichord too closely, thus
avoiding the unnatural sound that often
results in studio recordings of this
instrument. There was one strange technical
glitch in my review copy that must be
noted however. The information that
is encoded in the disc that gives me
a display of the work title and artist
was misencoded, and the tracking
information that appeared on my CD player’s
screen was for a completely different
disc. This little flaw will hopefully
be corrected in the next run.
That little error aside,
this is a very fine release indeed,
and Analekta continue to take a strong
place in the lineup of consistent and
outstanding record labels. I do wish,
however, that their booklet notes were
a bit more detailed, and more geared
toward an educated audience. Not that
these notes are poorly written, they
just seem only to scratch the surface,
when more detail and analysis would
be appreciated.
As goes the performance
though, this is one of the best chamber
music recordings to which I have listened
this year, a disc that will have pride
of place on my shelf and one that is
sure to get repeated listening.
Kevin Sutton
James Ehnes, violin 
