Pahud, Pinnock: Bach – Complete Flute Sonatas (2 CD, APE)

Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Audio CD
SPARS Code: DDD
Number of Discs: 2 CD
Format: APE (image+cue)
Label: EMI Classics
Size: 560 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes

CD 01
01. Flute Sonata In E Minor BWV1034: I. Adagio Ma Non Tanto
02. Flute Sonata In E Minor BWV1034: II. Allegro
03. Flute Sonata In E Minor BWV1034: III. Andante
04. Flute Sonata In E Minor BWV1034: IV. Allegro
05. Flute Sonata In E BWV1035: I. Adagio Ma Non Tanto
06. Flute Sonata In E BWV1035: II. Allegro
07. Flute Sonata In E BWV1035: III. Siciliano
08. Flute Sonata In E BWV1035: IV. Allegro Assai
09. Flute Sonata In B Minor BWV 1030: Andante
10. Flute Sonata In B Minor BWV 1030: Largo E Dole
11. Flute Sonata In B Minor BWV 1030: Presto
12. Flute Sonata In A Major BWV 1032: Vivace
13. Flute Sonata In A Major BWV 1032: Largo E Dolce
14. Flute Sonata In A Major BWV 1032: Allegro

CD 02
01. Flute Sonata In C Major BWV 1033: Andante
02. Flute Sonata In C Major BWV 1033: Allegro
03. Flute Sonata In C Major BWV 1033: Adagio
04. Flute Sonata In C Major BWV 1033: Menuet
05. Sonata For Flute & Harpsichord In E Flat BVW 1031: I Allegro Moderato
06. Sonata For Flute & Harpsichord In E Flat BVW 1031: II Siciliano
07. Sonata For Flute & Harpsichord In E Flat BVW 1031: III Allegro
08. Flute Sonata In G Minor BWV 1020: Allegro
09. Flute Sonata In G Minor BWV 1020: Adagio
10. Flute Sonata In G Minor BWV 1020: Allegro
11. Flute Sonata In G Major BWV 1039: Adagio
12. Flute Sonata In G Major BWV 1039: Allegro Ma Non Presto
13. Flute Sonata In G Major BWV 1039: Adagio E Piano
14. Flute Sonata In G Major BWV 1039: Presto

Some of the finest flute playing, harpsichord playing or Bach, generally, ever committed to disc.

The phrasing is exquisite. Here’s a lesson in masculine and feminine phrase endings, or whatever you choose to call them, by a player who has learned to “speak Bach” natively. It includes BWV 1033, 1031, and 1020, whose authorship remains ambiguously poised between JS and CPE Bach, but all of which bear the craftsmanship of the Bach household, so why quibble over which one wrote it? They go beautifully with the rest of the Bach flute canon, and should be heard at every opportunity.

Pahud is a master flutist, and of course we all know Trevor Pinnock’s amazing renditions of Bach’s clavier parts, whether written or in the shorthand of the day. In the latter, Pinnock fully realizes the parts to sound organically grown around the complex giant beanstalk that is Bach’s flute lines. Once you’ve hard Pinnock, you don’t really want to listen to anyone else. The same might be said for Pahud if I didn’t know that so many great flutists have done so much with these works, whether in live performance on recorded discs. But I can honestly say that Pahud showed me things which I’d been learning toward without really knowing where I was going with it. Well, he’s already been there. And of course he makes it sound like the ONLY way, because his attention to detail isn’t just “stylistically” mimicked, but also grown organically out of the whole. His phrase endings aren’t academic; they contain the spirit of the phrase, brought to its conclusion, which is often the beginning of the next phrase.

I’m reminded of Eliot’s lines: “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” (Four Quartets: Little Gidding, V) I’ve played these works my whole life, and while I’m quite happy with my playing, Pahud completes that circle for me, taking me back to where I started, where I now hear the whole cycle “for the first time.”