Two celebrated soloists recording together for the first time, pianist David Fray and violinist Renaud Capuçon turn to Johann Sebastian Bach and four of his sonatas for violin and keyboard: No 3 in E major, No 4 in C minor, No. 5 in F minor and No 6 in G major.
The two French musicians struck up a performing partnership at the St Denis Festival in 2015. They have since appeared together at such venues as London’s Wigmore Hall, Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi and at the Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron in Provence, and in April 2019 the duo perform Bach and Beethoven at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, and in Lyon, Bordeaux, Grenoble (not far from Capuçon’s hometown, Chambéry), Geneva and the Heidelberger Frühling festival.
While Capuçon’s Erato catalogue contains just one other full-scale recording of Bach – the E major violin concerto paired with Tala gaisma (Distant Light) by the contemporary Latvian Pēteris Vasks – the towering German master figures prominently in Fray’s discography: his recent Erato release of the composer’s concertos for 2, 3 and 4 keyboards was preceded by an album of solo piano works, a collection of solo concertos (complemented by a video documentary directed by Bruno Monsaingeon) and a recital that strikingly juxtaposes works by Bach and Pierre Boulez.
Tracklist – Bach: Sonatas
Johann Sebastian Bach / Sonatas : for violin and keyboard
No. 5 in F minor BWV 1018
- [Largo]
- Allegro
- Adagio
- Vivace
No. 3 in E Major BWV 1016
- Adagio
- Allegro
- Adagio ma non tanto
- Allegro
No. 4 in C minor BWV 1017
- Largo
- Allegro
- Adagio
- Allegro
No. 6 in G Major BWV 1019
- Allegro
- Largo
- Allegro
- Adagio
- Allegro