The recent spate of recordings of Bach’s three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord has left us with a wide choice. Here we can have them straight (as it were) from Alison Crum and Laurence Cummings, or with tangent piano from Markku Luolajan-Mikkola and Miklos Spanyi. This is not the first time on disc we have heard Spanyi play this lovely instrument (he has already recorded some C P E Bach concertos on it for BIS) and its sound – halfway between a harpsichord and a fortepiano – is a welcome one in this intricate and intimate music. It is a bit of a surprise, therefore, that the resulting performances are characterised more by robust energy than by sweetness or delicate expressiveness.
Luolajan-Mikkola plays boldly and without inhibition, sounding almost cello-like at times, while Spanyi is a precise and firm companion. The recorded sound is vivid and full, achieving a good and clear balance between the two instruments. These are enjoyably uncomplicated readings, with enough bounce in them to blow away a few cobwebs but without any disagreeable surprises.
By contrast, Alison Crum and Laurence Cummings offer less buoyant performances. The latter’s harpsichord playing is neat with tightly controlled articulation, characteristics we have much opportunity to study since Crum’s gamba is damagingly far back in the balance. Her sound is muffled as a result, masking any subtleties she may have brought to the music, and indeed leaving one in places (such as the latter stages of the G major Sonata’s second movement) wondering whether she is playing at all. As it happens, her contribution seems naturally reticent and undemonstrative – perhaps too much so – but in any case this just sounds at times too much like a gamba accompanying a harpsichord instead of a true dialogue.
No two recordings of these sonatas adopt the same method of filling the disc out to respectable length. For Signum, Cummings interlaces the sonatas with brusque accounts of Preludes and Fugues from Book 1 of the 48, a neat idea which breaks the programme up nicely, while Luolajan-Mikkola and Spanyi open their disc with a version of the well-known B minor Flute Sonata, which is such a fine piece that it is a real pleasure to encounter it here in new clothes. Good reason to buy the BIS release then, less so for the Signum – though for real insight into the gamba sonatas the recent recording from Jordi Savall and Ton Koopman will take some beating.'