No 168 Con Cembalo obbligato – Bach’s Violin Sonatas I

Such compliments are rare: even a quarter of a century after the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, his son Carl Philipp Emanuel still enthused about his father’s six Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord, which he considered among his »best works«. Although they were more than 50 years old, they still sounded »excellent«, he wrote. In these works, Bach exercised the difficult art of the trio sonata in systematic fashion: all three parts (the violin, plus the upper and lower harpsichord parts) are on an equal footing in terms of composition and playing technique and all participate in the thematic development. With Isabelle Faust and Kristian Bezuidenhout, two outstanding soloists will be taking on these masterpieces.