An irresistible disc of some marvelous chamber music beautifully played by Dmitry Kouzov on the Cello and Peter Laul on Harpsichord and Piano (in H.510), two young artists we are sure to hear more from in the future. Indeed we eagerly anticipate their next release!

"Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s three sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard belong to his years in Berlin. The two preserved in reliable manuscript copies in the Brussels Conservatory Library, MS Wq.5634, Wq.136 and 137, belong to 1745-46, and the Sonata in G minor, Wq.88, was written in 1759. All three call for a degree of virtuosity in the performer.

The C major Sonata à Viola da Gamba Solo con Basso, Wq.136, written in 1745, offers three movements largely in the prevailing form of the period. The first movement, marked Andante, duly allows the opening theme to return in the dominant key, before a brief development and the return of the material in the tonic key. Something of the same procedure is followed in the Allegretto, with its two sections to be repeated, as in the final Arioso. The manuscript copy of the D major sonata, described as Solo a Viola di Gamba è Basso, includes figuration of the bass line in the first movement, with its improvised final cadenza. The Allegro di molto, in two complementary sections, calls for considerable agility and includes, in the second part, elaborate arpeggiation. The final Arioso, again in two sections, the second starting with a transposition of the opening theme, calls for double-stopping, a more obvious feature of writing for the viola da gamba.

The 1759 G minor sonata, of which an autograph copy survives, is listed in the Berlin library as Trio Nr. 24 / Viola da Gamba / Cembalo. The title Trio indicates the nature of the work, which follows the pattern of Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord and his organ trio sonatas. Instead of the essentially two-voice texture of the two earlier sonatas, the G minor sonata presents a three-voice texture, filled out with chords in the keyboard part, suggested by figuration of the bass line. This allows elements of contrapuntal imitation, a particular feature of the last movement of a work that has provided an interesting addition to the repertoire of the viola and of the cello." (from the liner notes by Keith Anderson)