Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No.4 in C minor, BWV1017
Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No.5 in F minor, BWV1018
Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No.6 in G major, BWV1019
Aleksandra Bryła (violin)
Maria Banaszkiewicz-Bryła (harpsichord)
rec. 2021, Aula Nova Concert Hall, Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music, Poznań
PRELUDE CLASSICS [52]
This series of the recordings of Bach’s Sonatas for violin and harpsichord seems to have begun on Dux 1494 with the first three but now continues here in an attractively produced disc devoted to the last three. They’re played by the Polish mother-and-daughter team of harpsichordist Maria Banaszkiewicz-Bryła – a very experienced player with a number of discs to her name as well as at least book on baroque keyboard music – and Aleksandra Bryła, second violinist of the Meccore String Quartet, which has won admiration for its performances.
Given the forgoing you would expect fine rapport and ensemble between the two instruments. Maria Banaszkiewicz-Bryła’s changes of articulation and colour are varied and appropriate, courtesy of a Reinhard von Nagel copy of a 1730 instrument by N and François Blanchet. Their conception of the opening Largo of No.4 is very different from the classic Grumiaux-Jaccottet recording (who are twice as fast) but in compensation Aleksandra Bryła has an attractively bright focused sound and takes a robust approach to all the sonata finales.
In the slow movement of No.5 one feels the influence of Period Performance; her vibrato here is very limited in places and – perhaps as a result – her playing sounds rather unshaped, though the ensuing Vivace is lively. The opening movement of No.6 is up to tempo and the harpsichord solo in the third movement (of six) is played with authority, though quite expansively. Sparing of vibrato again in the Adagio here, there’s not so much rise and fall in the violinist’s phrasing and it tends to emerge, on disc at least, as slightly one dimensional. But there’s genial fillip in the finale. Generally speaking, it’s the slow movements that cause more problems than the faster ones, which are spry, alert and well sprung rhythmically.
The recording has been well judged with only slightly too long gaps between movements to complain about. I’ve not heard the earlier Dux disc so can’t say if these sonatas faithfully replicate the aesthetic to be heard there. Nevertheless, these are generally robust, attractive readings and the production standards of booklet and recording are high.
Jonathan Woolf
