J.S. Bach: Flute Sonatas BWVV 1030-1035 (Arr. for Recorder & Basso continuo) Michala Petri, Hille Perl, Mahan Esfahani

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1731): Flute Sonata in B Minor, BWV 1030 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo):
• 1Flute Sonata in B Minor, BWV 1030 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): I. Andante07:42
• 2Flute Sonata in B Minor, BWV 1030 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): II. Largo e dolce03:25
• 3Flute Sonata in B Minor, BWV 1030 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): IIIa. Presto01:31
• 4Flute Sonata in B Minor, BWV 1030 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): IIIb. Allegro04:06
• Flute Sonata in E-Flat Major, BWV 1031 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo):
• 5Flute Sonata in E-Flat Major, BWV 1031 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): I. Allegro moderato03:24
• 6Flute Sonata in E-Flat Major, BWV 1031 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): II. Siciliano02:31
• 7Flute Sonata in E-Flat Major, BWV 1031 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): III. Allegro04:18
• Flute Sonata in A Major, BWV 1032 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo):
• 8Flute Sonata in A Major, BWV 1032 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): I. Vivace04:45
• 9Flute Sonata in A Major, BWV 1032 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): II. Largo e dolce02:55
• 10Flute Sonata in A Major, BWV 1032 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): III. Allegro04:06
• Flute Sonata in C Major, BWV 1033 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo):
• 11Flute Sonata in C Major, BWV 1033 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): I. Andante - Presto01:35
• 12Flute Sonata in C Major, BWV 1033 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): II. Allegro02:17
• 13Flute Sonata in C Major, BWV 1033 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): III. Adagio01:38
• 14Flute Sonata in C Major, BWV 1033 (Arr. for Tenor Recorder & Basso continuo): IV. Menuettos I & II02:54
• Flute Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1034 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo):
• 15Flute Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1034 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): I. Adagio man non tanto02:59
• 16Flute Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1034 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): II. Allegro02:35
• 17Flute Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1034 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): III. Andante04:20
• 18Flute Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1034 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): IV. Allegro04:38
• Flute Sonata in E Major, BWV 1035 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo):
• 19Flute Sonata in E Major, BWV 1035 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): I. Allegro ma non tanto02:11
• 20Flute Sonata in E Major, BWV 1035 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): II. Allegro02:48
• 21Flute Sonata in E Major, BWV 1035 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): III. Siciliano03:55
• 22Flute Sonata in E Major, BWV 1035 (Arr. for Alto Recorder & Basso continuo): IV. Allegro assai03:05
• Total Runtime01:13:38

Info for J.S. Bach: Flute Sonatas BWVV 1030-1035 (Arr. for Recorder & Basso continuo)

In honor of OUR Recordings’ 40th Release, Michala Petri could scarcely choose a more exciting program than a return visit to Bach’s Flute Sonatas; Michala’s famous 1992 recording with Keith Jarrett has long since attained legendary status. Just as her collaboration with Jarrett unveiled a ‘new-born’ approach to Bach, this new recording is likewise revelatory and... transcendent. Joining Michala on this journey is an early music dream team: harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, rightly regarded as one of the fiercest of the younger generation of clavecinistes, playing his new Jukka Ollikka harpsichord, and Hille Perl, one of the world’s leading and most beloved viola da gambists rounding out the continuo unit. As we’ve come to expect from OUR Recordings, the sonics and packaging are extraordinary, thanks to the producer Preben Iwan and booklet notes by Mahan Esfahani. This new recording of the Bach 'Flute' Sonatas is destined to become a reference edition of this famous works.

Michala Petri, recorder
Hille Perl, viola da gamba
Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord

Michala Petri
has performed more than 4000 concerts in the worlds leading festivals and Concert Halls,and has broken down the boundaries of her instrument, the recorder.

Since her youth, she has followed her wish for musical expansion in various ways, through commissioning more than 150 new works, through dialogue with other musical cultures and through developing new playing techniques.

Artists with whom she has collaborated include Keith Jarrett, Sir Neville Marriner, James Galway, Gidon Kremer, Heinz Holliger, Henryk Szeryng, Pinchas Zukermann, Maurice Andre, Joshua Bell, Mahan Esfahani and Claudio Abbado. Among composers having composed for her are Sir Malcolm Arnold, Gordon Jacob, Per Nørgaard, Vagn Holmboe, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Olav Anton Thommessen, Sunleif Rasmussen, Bent Sørensen, Steven Stucky, Joan Albert Amargos, Chen Yi, Bright Cheng, Ander and Thomas Koppel and Daniel Børtz.

She has received the Leonie Sonning Music Prize, Europa Musicale Soloist Prize, three times the German ECHO KLASSIK Award, amongst others. She has recorded more than 70 cds, several having been Grammy-nominated.

Her repertoire spans works from the Baroque, Classicism, Romanticism and extends into contemporary and improvised music. It is precisely this versatility that lies behind her special appeal as an artist.

A daughter of a violinist and a pianist, both with interest in contemporary music, she already as a child became interested in expanding the possibilities of her own instrument, to make it match the sounds she grew up hearing.

She started her formal education at age 11 at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany, with Professor Ferdinand Conrad. At the time of her studies the recorder was mainly considered only an instrument for baroque music, but already then many of today's composers were composing works for her.

The first work dedicated to her was from Danish Fluxus artist Henning Christiansen: "To play for a child. Through the demands she met from new compositions, she further developed various playing techniques, enabling the recorder to have a more varied tone-quality and a larger expression. In spite of advice to take on a "real" instrument she stayed with the recorder - realizing the instruments ability to immediately express the players intentions, being the wind instrument reacting most instantly to the breath of the player. Furthermore she saw a challenge in advocating that good music making is independent of advanced remedies, and in "demystifying" classical concerts, realizing that many people unfamiliar with classical and modern music would be attending her concerts, being familiar with the instrument. Since youth she has made a point of programming contemporary music in her concerts challenging the audience, and advocating that modern music is as accessible as old, if put i the right frame and if performed in an atmosphere of bonding with the audience.

In her wish to extending the instruments limited dynamic potential she has actively collaborated with instrument-makers, and applied her experience to the development of a new type that incorporates her ideas. "With this instrument, which has more dynamics and compass, I can give better expression to the music, with more freedom and naturalness in my expressive range".

From the beginning of her career she has performed with musicians outside the baroque music scene, such as Palle Mikkelborg, Keith Jarrett, Carsten Dahl, Jesper Thilo, Niels Jørgen Steen, Benjamin Koppel and Bjørn Svin.

Her collaboration in the 90s on two cds with Keith Jarrett, gave her a latent interest in the art of improvisation, which is partly required in Baroque music, though within the narrow borders of the rules of that time. The collaboration was initiated by Keith Jarrett, who heard Michala play in concert at New Yorks Lincoln Centre and suggested that they at some point played something together - which let to two albums of Bach Sonatas and Handel Sonatas. Recently she has taken up playing fully improvised concerts, amongst others with Benjamin Koppel and Carsten Dahl.

Booklet for J.S. Bach: Flute Sonatas BWVV 1030-1035 (Arr. for Recorder & Basso continuo)