bach and mozart for violin and harpsichord ❧ 111
advantages of the harpsichord over the modern piano as a companion of
stringed instruments makes its use in the majority of the violin sonatas vastly
preferable. With the harpsichord, as with the early pianos, it is possible to
achieve easily and naturally a blend of tone with the violin, to color and to
orchestrate without danger of forcing and loss of clarity. The orchestral con-
ceptions of the Mozart sonatas, many of them so diffi cult to achieve on the
piano without exaggeration and distortion, come out on a harpsichord or
an early piano as they were intended to sound. There is no fudging of inner
parts in order to avoid overwhelming the violin. Everything can be clear and
yet balanced.
It has nevertheless been possible to present many beautiful and convinc-
ing performances of the Mozart violin sonatas with piano; indeed there are
some which are not suited to performance on the harpsichord. But the six
Bach violin sonatas with piano have been far less satisfactory, as their relatively
infrequent performances may attest. The two-voice writing of the harpsichord
parts of the allegros and the coloring of the adagios demand an instrument
better capable of clarity without dryness and of line without bareness than the
modern piano. Also the richness of octave doublings and coupled registers,
which lend an orchestral color to certain movements, is available only in the
most limited way on the pianoforte.
However, even in the performance of these works on the harpsichord, there
are problems. Bach has not always completely written out his text, and while
some movements are beautifully colored in the manner of the harpsichord
and of the violin, others remain abstract and linear. It is clear from the manu-
scripts that several possible methods of performance were envisaged: the dou-
bling of bass parts by a viola da gamba in the cases of a weak harpsichord, even
the supplementing of the rudimentary fi gured basses of the harpsichord by a
second accompanying instrument, all doubtless very much dependent on the
specifi c conditions of performances. Since there are at present no good per-
forming editions of the Bach sonatas, conscientious performers are obliged
to go to Bach’s original text and make their own editions for performances,
to supply the phrasings not indicated by Bach, to realize fi gured basses, to
choose color and instrumental disposition most suitable to the circumstances
of performance. But the most important is the cultivation of an ensemble, of a
fl exibility and responsiveness of playing together on the part of the instrumen-
talists, so that the whole and all the parts of this marvelous fabric shall emerge
spontaneously and freely in all native warmth and vitality.
In playing this music it becomes more and more evident that in the case of
Bach, one is dealing with instrumental parallels of the church cantatas, and of
Mozart, with miniature operas. Details of religious texts, choruses, ariosos, and
notions of the church season are recalled by many of the Bach movements; and
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rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
#1