KUI-INAU. Biblical Sonatas: No. 1, "The Fight between David and Goliath"; No. 3, "Jacob's Wedding"; No. 4, "The Illness and Recovery of Hezekiah". Fritz Neumeyer (harpsichord), Fritz Uhlenbruch (speaker). DGG Archive Q APM14026 (12 in., 32s. 3d. plus 5s. 3d. P.T.).

Taney (1/61) PRL0201-2

In Colin Tilney's musicianly recording of the complete set of Biblical Sonatas by Kuhnau (Bach's immediate predecessor as Cantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig), he laboured under the disadvantage of an old instrument whose action was rather noisy, whose damping was uneven and whose tone lacked much variety. Fritz Neurneyer is better off with a modern Neupert—which nevertheless is tuned a semitone down to approximate to the pitch of Kuhnau's time—and uses it with unfailing taste and discretion. The recorded tone is less forward and harsh, and so more agreeable to the ear ; and though this disc seems to have taken an unconscionable time to enter the Archive list—it was recorded ten years ago, and has been on the market for a long time on another label—the technical quality is quite satisfactory.

Neumeyer, as we know from his numerous other recordings, is a stylish artist who can be depended upon to bring out the full flavour of a work without exaggerations and distortions; and his playing here sometimes contains finesses which escaped Tilney. In the third of these programmatic works, for example—that dealing with the story of Jacob—the length of Jacob's labours is not made to weary the listener, and the unexpected key-changes representing Laban's deceit are handled with more imagination. There is finely expressive playing in Sonata 4, too, of the opening lament (based, like the second movement also, on the chorale Am tiefer Noth, familiar to us from the St. Matthew Passion); and while the registration colours are never splashed about, there is admirable gaiety in the bridesmaids' song of Sonata 3 and vividness in the trumpets and drums which greet the victorious David in Sonata 1. Only in the delightful Israelitish dance of joy in this last, incidentally, does Neumeyer disappoint by persistently cutting up the music into single bar lengths. Throughout the recording the descriptive titles of the movements of the sonatas are read in German by an announcer—which is perhaps superfluous, especially for repeated hearings. L.S.