Jonas Zschenderlein & Alexander von Heißen – Pure (2018) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

“Yet another a record of baroque violin works played by baroque instrumentalists on period baroque instruments”, you might well say upon reading the track list of this release by (baroque…) violinist Jonas Zschenderlein, accompanied by harpsichord player Alexander von Heißen. In fact, it’s anything but! The idea of this album is to record the instruments in a completely modern way, with microphones placed up close, and a post-production operation (mixing, balancing tracks between microphones, equalisation or distortion of the original sound, artificial reverberation, etc.) of the sort normally found on rock albums. The result is a sound which is bound to startle a listener who is used to their Bach Sonata BWV 1019 being played a certain way, according to the canonical method imposed by post-romantic violinists in recent decades, or by “pure” baroque artists. But that’s the whole point. Corelli himself gets the same treatment and his reasonably famous Sonata Op. 5 No. 5 becomes pretty much unrecognisable. On the other hand, lesser-known works by Montanari and Westhoff, thanks to the treatment they get here, could well become standards…

Tracklist:
1. in G minor, Op. 5, No. 5 : I. Adagio 03:15
2. in G minor, Op. 5, No. 5 : II. Vivace 02:11
3. in G minor, Op. 5, No. 5 : III. Adagio 02:08
4. in G minor, Op. 5, No. 5 : IV. Vivace 02:02
5. in G minor, Op. 5, No. 5 : V. Allegro 01:27
6. in D minor : I. Adagio 02:07
7. in D minor : II. Allegro 02:23
8. in D minor : III. Adagio 01:50
9. in D minor : IV. Giga senza basso 02:19
10. Toccata in D Major, BWV 912 11:03
11. Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004: IV. Giga 04:48
12. in G Major, BWV 1019 : I. Allegro 03:59
13. in G Major, BWV 1019 : II. Largo 01:54
14. in G Major, BWV 1019 : III. Allegro 05:22
15. in G Major, BWV 1019 : IV. Adagio 02:58
16. in G Major, BWV 1019 : V. Allegro 03:35
17. no. 2 in A minor : I. Largo 02:33
18. no. 2 in A minor : II. Presto 02:45
19. no. 2 in A minor : III. Imitazione del liuto 02:28
20. no. 2 in A minor : IV. Aria grave 02:05
21. no. 2 in A minor : V. Finale 01:07
22. No. 2 in A Minor: III. Imitazione del liuto (Arr. for Violin and Guitar) 03:05