Gamba Sonatas

Featuring

Krzysztof Firlus
Anna Firlus
Christian Podbielski
Johann Sebastian Bach
Christian Wilhelm Podbielski
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

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Composer's Artistic Vision

This album symmetrically combines works by the famous Bach family and the almost forgotten Podbielski family, both with Polish roots, showcasing their individual styles and ideas.

Recording & Production

This album was recorded in October and November 2017 at the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice.

Compositional Technique

Christian Wilhelm Podbielski's Sonata in G major, featured on this recording, is his only work for solo viola da gamba, an instrument that was losing popularity at the time.

Historical Context

Christian Wilhelm Podbielski's counterpoint student was Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, who later became a famous Romantic poet, writer, lawyer, composer, and music critic.

Instruments

Anna Firlus performs on two harpsichords: one by Matthias Kramer (2016) inspired by 18th-century German instruments, and another by J.C. Neupert inspired by a 1737 French instrument.

Instruments

Krzysztof Firlus plays a viola da gamba made by Igor Przybylo in 2009, which is a copy of a 1693 instrument by Michel Colichon.

Composer Biography

Christian Wilhelm Podbielski, born in Königsberg in 1741, was the youngest of twelve children of a Polish-born Prussian organist and later became a cathedral organist and lectured on music theory at Königsberg University.