Sonatas for Viola da Gamba

"the playing offers telling insights and revels in a conspicuously warm and immediate sound."
(BBC Music)

"Splendidly played and sung, and beautifully recorded - the balance between harpsichord and gamba in the sonatas could hardly be bettered - these accounts merit enthusiastic recommendation."
(Gramophone)

"Pandolfo can draw colours from his viola da gamba which never fail to surprise and frequently enchant...Sumptuous tone and extravagant dramatic poise dominate this recording...this is unquestionably a reference disc for those wishing to relish the apogee of ensemble playing from two remarkable musicians."
(International Record Review)

Fifteen years after his recording of Bach's three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord (on hm, with Rinaldo Alessandrini), Paolo Pandolfo returns to this repertoire a new approach: the fruit of active and concentrated years of consideration, study and research into the inherent possibilities of his instrument. Given the basic differing natures of these two instruments, the performance of these works very often turns - in Pandolfo's words - into a "musical argument", rather than what is demanded by the music's essential nature: a "musical conversation" in which the score achieves "transparency and eloquence".

For this exercise in interpretative discourse Paolo Pandolfo has found a suitably-engaged musical mind in harpsichordist Markus Hünninger, a friend for many years and a teacher, like Pandolfo, at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The resulting disc has a very personal flavour to it, reiterating the uncompromising sense of quality in all that the Roman gamba player does. Following on from his essential recordings of music by Forqueray, Hume, Marais, Sainte Colombe and Abel, he is now rounding off on Glossa his own particular vision of Bach, which he commenced in 2000 with the recording of the now-legendary Six Suites.

To complete the disc there are two vocal arias with obbligato viola da gamba drawn from two of Bach's Passions, in which Pandolfo is joined by two leading early music singers of recent times, the countertenor Michael Chance and the bass Harry van der Kamp.