Bach: 6 Flute Sonatas - Michala Petri, M. Esfahani, and H. Perl

Johann Sebastian Bach. Six flute sonatas, BWV 1030-1035. Michala Petri, Mahan Esfahani, Hille Perl. OUR Recordings (p) 2019. (3/5 stars)

Both Bach and Telemann wrote for two styles of flutes: the older type, which we call the recorder, and the transverse flute, the kind played across the body, the ancestor to the modern, metal flutes. In baroque times both types often were made of wood, however the creation of sound varies between them. In the Brandenburg Concertos, Bach calls for the recorder in the concertino group, and in the fifth concerto, he calls for transverse flute. In some contemporary interpretations, musicians have used the modern flute in both these works to substitute for the original instruments.

Telemann wrote chamber pieces featuring both types of flutes together. During his time, this more than likely would have been seen as combination of the old and the new.

In his recording of some of Bach's flute sonatas, Benedek Csalog writes:

It is difficult to choose one ideal type of flute to play the flute sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach - the diversity of these sonatas is too large. The four sonatas which are clearly identified as from Bach's hand do not come from one homogeneous cycle and they do not have any chronological relationship or specific stylistic similarities. Moreover the choice of the instrument depends not only on musicological considerations, but also on the circumstances surrounding the performance: the acoustics involved and the personality or the state of mind of the interpreter.

In this new recording by Michala Petri, Mahan Esfahani, and Hille Perl, the performance of Bach's flute sonatas is performed using a a viola da gamba to reinforce the bass line, a harpsichord that has been reinforced with carbon fiber to project better in modern concert halls, and a series of recorders, not flutes, that include keys.

There are examples of Bach re-arranging his own music, and that from other composers, for different instruments. I've also reviewed interpretations of modern performers making their own arrangements, using both historical instruments and modern counterparts. These come with different benefits and drawbacks. In their performance of Bach's Kunst der Fuga, the Austrian Art Gang re-arranges Bach's late collection of fugues for winds and guitar. While Bach didn't live long enough to experience the saxophone, the recording is among my most favorite. What it lacks in historical authenticity it makes up for with invention and creative interpretation. The same could be said for Glenn Gould's Bach on piano or Wendy Carlos's Bach on synthesizer. Not historical, but also, clearly, not historical.

I am confused by the intention of musicians who play in the gray space, adopting historical instruments or performance practices, but with compromises. The result has been darker gray, perhaps, with Pinnock's recording with Jean-Pierre Rampal. Lighter gray in this recording.

Back in 1992, Petri made a recording of the Bach sonatas for the recorder—an instrument she is famous for playing—with the jazz pianist, Keith Jarrett. While Jarrett is best known for his performance of jazz standards and improvised solo piano, he has also dabbled in the performance of Bach on the piano and the harpsichord. With Petri, he played a harpsichord within the intimate acoustic of his home recording studio.

The musicological considerations Csalog speaks about in his notes cover a lot of performance issues, from tempos, ornamentation, stylstic idioms based upon the age of the piece, choice of instruments, and the intent of the piece(s). However, that's not to say Bach would have had objection to performing these pieces with different instruments, especially considering how pragmatic a musician he was known to have been. In Csalog's recording, consideration was made between two different models of historical copies of transverse flutes, and how these models blended with the choice in keyboards: clavichord and early fortepiano.

In the liner notes of this recording, mention is made about the adoption of the chosen instruments for the benefit of modern concert spaces. I compare this with the Csalog recording with Miklós Spányi because of their mention of "acoustics."

This recording differs from Petri's earlier recording in several ways. First, in this recording, Petri uses different instruments, and as a result, the musicians have re-arranged some of the music to different keys, to accommodate the compass of the chosen recorders. There is no real harm in this, as a practice, unless you subscribe to the characteristics of keys and temperaments, as has been written about in a number of historical sources. To my ears, the change in key is of little significance.

Second, the keyboard part in this recording is more inventive than the performance by Jarrett. While I have a high opinion of Jarrett as a jazz musician, his reading of baroque keyboard music tends to be very bland compared to his performance of his own material on piano. Esfahani is far more colorful with his use of ornamentation.

Third, this recording, as mentioned, augments the keyboard with an extra instrument. Other recordings present some of the sonatas with keyboard alone, some with an added bass instrument (gamba or cello).

Fourth, this recording was made in a very different acoustic space. This recording, like others made on the same label featuring Esfahani and Petri, was made in a church. Whether or not these were intended for larger audiences or any religious function, the church in this case, in the hands of the recording engineers, is not serving the music, at least recorded, well.

While I did survey this recording in high resolution PCM via Qobuz, listening both with headphones and with loudspeakers couldn't overcome the challenges of hearing the lower register of Petri's tenor recorder or loss of clarity of the bass line. (I would like to hear in the recording in multichannel SACD, to see if it presents any added clarity.)

Esfahani's instrument sparkles with crisp precision in this recording, but balance-wise, it is also loud, out-shining the recorder in parts. I can't say for sure if it's the acoustics or the match of instruments. With the gamba mixed in, especially so in the faster movements, the sound is somewhat muddied with the long reverb time. Other recordings I auditioned, including one made by Stephen Preston and Trevor Pinnock with gambist Jordi Savall, didn't suffer in the same way with a lack of clarity across all parts when a bass instrument was used; the acoustic was far more dry and intimate-sounding.

In the end, I am not sure what is gained by performing these pieces on the recorder, other than to showcase Petri's take on them, using the instruments for which she is so well known. In some ways, I preferred her earlier recording for the more intimate acoustic. This one has superior keyboard support. The Garnisons Kirke may be a wonderful place to make music, and quickly auditioning the recording Petri made with Esfahani of modern pieces there did not suffer the same issues I experienced with clarity in this disc. Whether a different recording strategy, or location is the answer, I cannot say for sure. But I simply did not find this recording very satisfying unfortunate as it is, with technically-capable musicians.

N.B. The recording's booklet misprints Bach's date of death as 1731; Bach died in 1750.