Viola da Gamba Sonata No. 1 in G Major

While the viola da gamba slowly became an endangered species during Bach’s lifetime, soon to be superseded by the cello, he wrote wonderful solo parts for the instrument in his cantatas, the St John and St Matthew Passions and the last of his six Brandenburg Concertos. It is likely that he composed his three gamba sonatas either for Carl Friedrich Abel, who studied with Bach at St Thomas’ School in Leipzig, or Abel’s slightly older contemporary Ludwig Christian Hesse, who joined the court orchestra of Frederick the Great in 1741. Sonata No. 1 for viola da gamba and harpsichord, written in Leipzig around 1740, is probably a reworking of a trio sonata for two flutes and continuo that may in turn have started life as an earlier composition, now lost, for two violins. The work opens with an expressive “Adagio” that grows from a simple melodic idea into a rich dialogue between the lyrical gamba and its spikier partner. Bach banishes cares in the nimble second movement, pauses for a moment to recover in the exquisite “Andante”, then lets loose a final fugue that celebrates life itself.