Notes for: July 27, 2021
The works on today’s program span generations and styles. From the Baroque era comes Jean-Baptiste Barrière’s Sonata for Two Cellos, an engaging work written for an instrument that was relatively new in France early in the 18th century. In Italy the cello already had replaced the viola da gamba, a similar instrument but with a smaller range and sound. In Germany Bach was exploring what the cello could do as a solo instrument in his six Cello Suites. But France lagged behind, and Barrière’s first instrument was the viol. Once he discovered the cello, though, he began his rise to fame as a performer and a composer.
In 1731 Barrière left his home in Bordeaux for Paris, where he joined the Academie Royale de Musique as a cellist and caught the attention of Louis XV. At that time composers had to have the king’s permission to publish their works. Louis was so impressed with Barrière’s virtuosity that he granted him that royal privilege for an extended period of time. Barrière went on to publish four books of sonatas for the cello – 24 compositions that offered a rare source of works for solo cello. Meanwhile he continued to win acclaim as a cello virtuoso, including a triumphant concert tour in Italy in 1738. Back in Paris, his appearances again drew raves, one critic praising his “grand precision.” But after 1741 he dropped from sight, perhaps because of ill health. He died at the age of 40.
In his cello sonatas Barrière plumbed the instrument’s range and richness. The Sonata for Two Cellos in G Major is a vibrant illustration of why he was famed as a composer as well as a cello virtuoso. In it, two instruments of equal importance engage in a sometimes lush, sometimes virtuosic conversation. They sing together in the Andante – where they complement each other as they pass the melody back and forth – and in the songful, soulful, ornamented Adagio. If the first two movements are a showpiece for melodic riches, the third is a different kind of showpiece: a gambol that demands great virtuosity as the two cellos playfully race one another up and down the strings before bringing the Sonata to a close with a sonorous chord. It’s a fine demonstration of what the cello is capable of and why Barrière’s compositions were such an important resource for players of this newly popular instrument.