Ensemble Diderot
Audax ADX11203 56:23 mins
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg is best known for the attachment of his name to Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Born in 1727, he was a child prodigy who may have studied with Bach’s eldest son Wilhelm Friedemann in Dresden and also, perhaps, with JS Bach in Leipzig.
He died at the age of 29 having left two ambitious harpsichord concertos, several delightful keyboard polonaises, a couple of sacred cantatas and five trio sonatas. The violinist Johannes Pramsohler and his Ensemble Diderot have chosen four of the trio sonatas for their new release. A fifth, in C minor, is featured on one of their previous discs.
Goldberg’s style is an interesting blend of counterpoint and chromaticism, bringing to mind some of JS Bach’s later compositions – indeed, the C major trio sonata was mistakenly identified by the 19th-century Bach Gesellschaft as a work, BWV 1037, by the great composer. The piece in question is the first item in the present recording and readers may at once understand how such an error came about. In addition to the four Goldberg trio sonatas, Ensemble Diderot has also chosen one by WF Bach, with a masterly concluding Ciacona.
As they have demonstrated in their earlier recordings on this label, the players bring expressive refinement to the music. Tempos are effectively judged and all is engagingly enlivened by their infectious enthusiasm and evenly balanced ensemble. An example of their playing at its most persuasive is provided by the Allegro assai finale of the A minor Sonata, incorrectly allotted the key of C major in the booklet. The programme has been recorded in a warmly responsive acoustic.