Leila Schayegh JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Sonatas and Partitas

 

SONATAS AND PARTITAS

Leila Schayegh / Musica Fiorita / Daniela Dolci VIVALDI The Four Seasons

                                                           THE FOUR SEASONS

Leila Schayegh / La Cetra Barockorchester Basel JEAN-MARIE LECLAIR Concerti per Violino Opp. 7 & 10 - Nos. 2 & 6

                                   CONCERTI PER VIOLINO OPP. 7 & 10 - NOS. 2 & 6

Leila Schayegh / La Cetra Barockorchester Basel JEAN-MARIE LECLAIR Concerti per Violino Opp. 7 & 10 - Nos. 1 & 3

                                    CONCERTI PER VIOLINO OPP. 7 & 10 - NOS. 1 & 3

Leila Schayegh / Jan Schultsz JOHANNES BRAHMS Violin Sonatas

The Violin Sonatas of Johannes Brahms were the product of much self-critical reflection, and the three surviving works are from a composer mature in years. Composed around the same time as the Violin Concerto (No 1), the C minor Piano Trio and the Second Cello Sonata (Nos 2 and 3), they also echo some of his songs, such as those written to poems by Klaus Groth.

Into this Romantic atmosphere come new performances of the three works on Glossa, played by violinist Leila Schayegh (particularly fêted for her recordings of Bach, Caldara and Benda), teaming up here with pianist Jan Schultsz. Schayegh plays a copy of a period violin, whilst Schultsz uses an original 1879 Streicher instrument.

The two players aim to recapture the performing tradition as the composer would have known it, and within which he would have intended his pieces to have been played. Schayegh and Schultsz worked with Clive Brown and Neal Peres Da Costa in their efforts to aim for “the spirit rather than the dead letter of the score” and they pay admirable notice of important interpretative questions for music of this time – and they provide an intuitive musical and emotional response to the lyricism of the first two sonatas and the darker-hued tones of the third, investing these late-nineteenth-century works. (Glossa)

Amandine Beyer / Leila Schayegh ANTONIO CALDARA Trios Sonatas

Two former students of the Schola Cantorum in Basel, both now captivating audiences each with their individual violinistic artistry, Amandine Beyer and Leila Schayegh, join forces for a new SCB recording devoted to the trio sonata music of Antonio Caldara, and issued with Glossa.

Though he is known now (as for much of his life) primarily as a composer of oratorios and operas, the Venetian Caldara made his name penning early examples of the trio sonata form; his Opp. 1 and 2 sets were published in 1693 and 1699 respectively. Caldara’s Op. 1 Trio Sonatas are characterized by their contrasting use of fast and slow movements, those from the second set by their incorporation of dances. Yet Caldara’s melodic gift – which was to serve him so well in his musical posts in various Italian states, in Barcelona, and as vice-Kapellmeister at the Imperial Court in Vienna – is already evident in Beyer and Schayegh’s selection from his instrumental publications; the composer was also already noted as a virtuoso of the cello – and he also played the violin and keyboard, and the awareness of all these instruments is greatly evident in these trio sonatas.

The continuo team here is made up of Jonathan Pesek, cello, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, harpsichord and organ, and Matthias Spaeter, liuto attiorbato. Beyer and Schayegh both were taught at the SCB by Chiara Banchini and are continuing their connection with the school as teaching successors to Banchini. (GLOSSA)

Leila Schayegh / Jörg Halubek JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Sei Suonate à Cembalo certato è Violino Solo BWV 1014-1019

Two rising stars in today’s firmament of Baroque music performance, Leila Schayegh and Jörg Halubek, join forces to record one of the major challenges in their joint repertory: the six Bach Violin Sonatas, BWV 1014-1019. 

The collection’s title, Sei Suonate à Cembalo certato è Violino Solo, reflects the close partnership demanded of the violin and harpsichord players, with Bach moving away from the idea of continuo support for a solo instrument and constantly making new technical demands on the musicians and thereby approaching the concept of the triosonata. Completed by around 1725, most of these richlycharacterful works combine the slow-fast-slowfast sequence of movements found in Italian works and a cantabile tone with elements of German contrapuntal style. 

The artistic partnership of Schayegh and Halubek, now in its tenth year, has seen them record chamber music by Jean-Marie Leclair, CPE Bach and Giovanni Mossi but the Bach Violin Sonatas represents their first joint recording for Glossa (Schayegh took part in the recent much-acclaimed recording of Caldara Trio Sonatas, Op 1 with Amandine Beyer for the label, as well as regularly having featured on many of La Risonanza’s Glossa releases). As Schayegh and Habulek mention in their shared booklet essay guiding the listener through the Violin Sonatas (and through the 12 represented keys which are also reflected in the set’s graphic design), they have added two movements from the earlier version of the final Sonata, BWV 1019a as a kind of cheerful and delightful encore.