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NICOLAS DAUTRICOURT & JUHO POHJONEN 23
Do you regard the six sonatas as a cycle?
N.D.:
It’s very likely that the first three sonatas were composed in Cöthen between
1717 and 1723, and were subsequently revised in Leipzig. These three pieces reveal
a harmonic progression with a growing number of sharps in the key signature. In
fact, the emotional weight constantly intensifies. The First Sonata is really quite
slender and simple. The next two are increasingly concertante and virtuosic. The
violin is sometimes even quite swaggering in its expression.
The Fourth and Fifth sonatas belong to the world of the flat keys, and the series
ends with the Sixth Sonata, in a radiant G major, which undoubtedly reminds us
of the Brandenburg Concertos composed during the same period. The last sonata
originally consisted of six movements. Bach only retained five of them.