Description
Claudia Mende and Gerd Amelung have been playing together since their student days, in ensemble and orchestra concerts as well as in chamber music projects. As part of the series "Sounding Thuringian Residences", they recorded the G minor sonata by Johann Ernst Bach (1722-1777) on video - and the piece convinced them so much that the idea of \u200B\u200Bthe complete recording of Bach's six sonatas for piano and violin, printed in 1770 and 1772 respectively, was born. Johann Ernst Bach is one of the many musical members of the Bach family. As a student at St. Thomas's, he learned under his godfather Johann Sebastian Bach and from 1749 worked as the organist at the Georgenkirche in Eisenach, succeeding his father Johann Bernhard Bach; he was also a harpsichordist at the Eisenach and Weimar court orchestras.
Kerstin Schwarz's Silbermann grand piano was used for the video recording; its flexibility in terms of color and dynamics is ideal for this music, which is somewhere between sensitivity, Sturm und Drang and classical music. Its sound characteristics, which differ greatly from those of later Viennese instruments, led the two musicians on a musical and tonal journey of discovery, the results of which can be heard on this CD. This repertoire was performed in rooms such as the amateur theater at Kochberg Castle: although it was written later than Johann Ernst Bach's sonatas, this historical room of Weimar Classicism provides them with an ideal setting with its sonic intimacy. The musicians and sound engineer Mathias Kiesling opted for a very purist recording technique: only particularly high-quality room microphones were used, which were very carefully positioned in the theater to bring out its intimate acoustics to their full advantage.