VIOLIN and KEYBOARD WORKS OF J.S. BACH RELEASED!

We are excited to officially announce that our recording of J.S. Bach's works for violin and keyboard has now been released in its entirety! Arabesque Records has released the three volumes of the recording, available for MP3 download through Arabesque Records here or through GooglePlay, Spotify, iTunes, or Amazon. So far physical CD's are not available commercially, but please contact John Chappell Stowe should you like for us to provide you with CD's.

Most recordings of Bach's violin and keyboard works include the six obbligato sonatas, BWV 1014--1019. We have included those with harpsichord, but also offer earlier versions of BWV 1018 and 1019 as violin and organ obbligato works. Edith and I believe there is sufficient evidence that Bach may have intended them as such, and we are grateful to the congregation and staff of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas for facilitating our access to the parish's very special Noack organ for the recording. Also in the collection are the beautiful Sonata in G major, BWV 1021, the fascinating Sonata in E minor, BWV 1023 (performed on the lovely Brombaugh meantone organ in Fairchild Chapel, Oberlin College) and the unique Suite in A major, BWV 1025 performed with violin and Lautenwerk.

Since liner notes for the recording are not yet available online, we will be adding a link to them on this page in a few days. In the notes we discuss our choices of texts for the music, our decisions on instrumentation, details about the instruments used, and considerable background on the composer and the music.We hope you find the notes interesting and helpful in listening to the music.

The recording is a product of years of labor, and was central to our development as a duo ensemble. Your joyful reception of the music is important to us! Speaking for myself, sharing the energy and spirit of Bach's music with you is one way of reminding the world of God's glory in a time when many people are struggling to remain joyful and faithful.

Dip into the music on Ensemble SDG's new release and, if you like, give us some feedback. We'd love to hear from you.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

 John Chappell Stowe