This is an engagingly idiosyncratic CD. Bach wrote only three chamber works specifically for the viola da gamba—BWV 1027, 1028, and 1029—largely because the instrument was falling out of fashion during his lifetime. The last of these three works is included on this CD, but in an expanded version for three parts, with harp and lute continuo. BWV 1011/995 is more familiar as the Fifth Cello Suite, or as the Lute Suite in G Minor. BWV 1025 is better known as a Violin Sonata with harpsichord accompaniment, after a work by Silvius Leopold Weiss. Weiss was a famous lutenist, and a presumed acquaintance of Bach. Bach took one of Weiss’s lute suites and arranged it for violin and harpsichord. In effect, what Perl and Santana have done is to “back-arrange” the suite for lute once more, and to drop the violin part down an octave to make it suitable for the viola da gamba. Got it? By now, you will have gathered that this is not a CD for Bach purists, although there is not the faintest whiff of sensationalism to mar the music and the performances.

Why the viola da gamba?” asks Perl rhetorically. “Why these three pieces?” She answers these questions in her booklet note, but the simple answers, I suppose, are (1) because she loves her instrument (as well she should!), and (2) why not?

The least convincing of the three selections is the Viola da Gamba Suite. The viola da gamba’s voice is too small and buzzy to present this music to its best advantage. Perl gets an A for effort, though, and I won’t deny that her performance gives the music a kind of monastic humility. The other two selections are more charming. The viola da gamba and the lute blend beautifully with each other, and the sobriety of the playing sets the timbral delights into relief. (It should be noted that Perl and Santana dispense with an Entrée movement found in both Weiss and Bach because “it was almost like having an Ouverture in the middle of a piece.”) The Sonata in G Minor sounds like a missing Brandenburg Concerto in this setting. The lute and harp continuo is very attractive, and the entire sonata bubbles with a sense of pleasure and purpose. Everyone’s having a good time, and so will you.

The soupy acoustic—this CD was recorded in a church—adds atmosphere and removes clarity. The music sounds good, but you might not be entirely sure what it is that you are hearing! The recording and copyright year is 1999. That—and a little sticker on the shrink-wrap—suggests that this CD might not stay available for very long in the United States. So, if the idea of this CD makes you itch, scratch fast or you might be too late.

Raymond Tuttle, FANFARE