Bach Viola da Gamba Sonata Played on 'Cello

[gamba]

Lunchtime concert today has Bach G min. gamba sonata played on 'cello. Not unusual & not to be deplored, otherwise this beautiful work ( slow movement especially ) would hardly ever be heard it at all.

However, it does raise the question of whether music written for a particular instrument when played on another instrument is spoiled, degraded, improved, given a new identity or what.

[salymap]

I suppose it depends on the difference between the two instruments. To someone like yourself who has played the work, gamba, it would matter more than to me, a lapsed pianist only. I think of it as a new identity, either for better or not.

[gamba]

I suppose it depends on the difference between the two instruments. To someone like yourself who has played the work, gamba, it would matter more than to me, a lapsed pianist only. I think of it as a new identity, either for better or not.

Like having the Mozart clarinet quintet played on a tuba ! ( only joking ! )

[BBMmk2]

Ah, when you have artists like Mischa maisky and Martha Argerich playing, then the original instruments do not matter at all. This cd is on DG.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

the performer is a factor in this salymap; perhaps more than the instrument, but as someone who prefers Bach on the piano to the harpsichord unless the player and the instrument are both just right i must say i have also had difficulty with certain Dutch cellist's intonation [sounded screechingly awful to me and the BAL reviewer some years ago] and also enjoy the big orchestral versions of the Brandenburgs by Klempere and von Karajan i may just be too much of a slacker in such matters

[aeolium]

However, it does raise the question of whether music written for a particular instrument when played on another instrument is spoiled, degraded, improved, given a new identity or what.

Not for the first time on these boards, gamba

I prefer to keep an open mind on the question. I enormously prefer performances of Mozart's clarinet concerto and quintet using the basset clarinet rather than the standard clarinet which was used in performances and recordings at least up to the early 1970s. On the other hand although I find listening to the Schubert arpeggione sonata using an arpeggione an interesting experience, I don't think any such performance I have heard has come close to impressing me about the music in the way that the performance of Rostropovitch (on cello) and Britten did. I think it frequently depends on the performance and also the musicianship of the performers.