Georg Friedrich Haendel (1685-1759)
Concerto pour clavecin seul avec viola da braccio

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Fantaisie n° 2 en ré mineur, TWV 32:2
Fantaisie n° 7 en la mineur, TWV 33:19
Fantaisie n° 2 en fa majeur, TWV 33:25
Sonate en canon en si bémol majeur pour viola da braccio, violoncelle et basse continue, TWV 41:B3

Christian Podbielski (1683-1753)
Sonate en la majeur pour viole de gambe et basse continue

Michel Corrette (1709-1795)
Sonate en si bémol majeur pour viola da braccio et basse continue

Christian Michael Wolff (1709-1789)
Sonate en do majeur pour clavecin obbligato et violetta

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Sonate en si mineur pour viole de gambe et clavecin, Wq 88, Helm 510

Pandolfis Consort

Elzbieta Sajka-Bachler, viola da braccio
Matthias Krampe, clavecin
Günter Schagerl, violoncelle
Hermann Platzer, archiluth

The viola until today oftentimes suffers from the dominance of her small sister, the violin. György Ligeti put it like this: “The violin leads, the viola remains in the shadows. But through the deep C string the viola has a unique dryness, compact, somewhat throaty with the smoky taste of wood, earth and tannin.” This wasn't always the case, composers of the Baroque era highly esteemed the sound of the viola da braccio, before it was modernized to be technically more playable, yet at the cost of lacking the original sustained sound. Pandolfis Consort with Elzbieta Sajka-Bachler, viola, Matthias Krampe, harpsichord, Hermann Platzer, archlute and Günter Schagerl, cello commence on a journey to discover the typical darker, melancholic sound of the original viola. This album by the title “Imagination” features representative concerts, sonatas and fantasias by Georg Friedrich Händel, Georg Philip Telemann, Christian Podbielski, Michel Corrette, Christian Michael Wolff and Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach on period instruments.