John Garth : Sonates pour clavier avec accompagnement op.2 et op.4

   in Early Music Today (Jun, 2014)
John Garth’s two sets of ‘Accompanied Keyboard Sonatas, Op. 2 & 4’ were in all probability first heard in subscription concerts that he set up in Durham along with his mentor Charles Avison in 1752 and in which he continued to be active for 20 years. Op. 2, published in 1768, was such a commercial success that Garth ventured a second set some four years later. All 12 works on this recording are in two movements, sometimes thematically linked. Stylistically, there are clear affinities with the recent Op. 5 sonatas of Johann Christian Bach, which Garth perhaps knew.

Gary Cooper is a persuasive advocate for Garth’s sonatas here, finding a good …