Soundlab Audiophile G9-7c: a 30-year odyssey fulfilled

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We are listening to the “Mystery Sonatas”, by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern, a German composer who lived from 1644-1704, a generation before J.S. Bach. His Rosemary or Mystery Sonatas for violin is a legendary composition, one of the earliest compositions that set new standards for violin playing. It uses extensively the technique of “scordatura”, whereby the traditional tuning of the violin in fifths is changed from one piece to another in combinations of fourths, fifths, thirds and octaves. The sonatas are grouped into “Joyful Mysteries”, “Sorrowful Mysteries” and “Glorious Mysteries”. I picked up this double album CD by Lyrichord at the Carmel Sunset Theater at the Bach Festival.

The recording was made in New York in 2010 at St. Peter’s Church in Chelsea. The violinist is Leah Gale Nelson who specializes in 17th and 18th century historical performances. She plays a violin made in 1737 by Sebastian Klotz in Mittelwald, Germany. She’s accompanied by Daniel Swenberg who plays a theorbo, a type of stringed instrument plucked like a guitar. Dongsok Shin also accompanies on the organ. The recording is nicely balanced with plenty of natural ambience.

On the big SL’s, the violin sounds not in the least bright or harsh, but no one would mistake it for a modern violin or indeed a lush Stradivarius. It’s remarkable how this composition by Biber from the 1670s was only discovered late in the 19th century in a museum in Munich. Biber rose to become Kapellmeister at Salzburg Cathedral in 1684, a whole generation before Mozart or his father. He was knighted by Austrian emperor Leopold I in 1690 for his services to music.

 

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Here’s a picture of the bass lute called the theorbo from the Bach Mass in B Minor concert I attended last week in Carmel. It can be quite large, up to six feet.

 

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We are continuing our tour of Bach’s music with a lovely recording of his sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord. This version is played by Yo Yo Ma on cello. The opening is one of most haunting pieces I’ve heard in classical music and will stop you cold in your tracks. You’d have to wonder how Bach was able to write such melodies 300 years ago. He had dozens of kids (from multiple wives!). He led a busy life. How did he write so much music?

 

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No tour of Bach’s music can skip listening to his magnificent Suites for Unaccompanied Cello. Here we have Yo Yo Ma again, his first recording. Words cannot do this music justice, but I recently bought a whole book that explained the genesis of this piece, which was lost for centuries and then “rescued” by the famous Spanish cellist Pablo Casals. I have listened to many versions of these pieces and they never fail to leave with a sense of wonder. What was Bach thinking when he composed this three centuries ago? It has no place in the catholic liturgy. It has become in the past century the signature of every famous cellist, much as the Beethoven sonatas are played by every pianist.

 

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This is the book on the Bach Cello Suites by a Canadian journalist who used to review rock music for a radio station and decided he needed a change of career! Amazing book.

 

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Our Bach celebration continues. A fascinating question of any musical genius is where did he or she get their inspiration? In J. S. Bach’s case, genes clearly played a key factor. The Bach musical clan lasted for 250 odd years. It started with Johann Bach who lived from 1604-1674. This lovely Ricercar high res recording features music of three of J.S. Bach’s ancestors. Hearing it is very revealing. You realize J. S. Bach did not compose in a vacuum. Music of the sort he composed was in the air, so to speak. His ancestors were composers. He took the building blocks of their compositional structures and greatly expanded on it.