Gidon Kremer Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sonatas For Violin Solo (ecm Ns)(2022)

Hitherto we have heard Rachel Podger only in early chamber works and as Andrew Manze's partner in Bach double concertos: here now, at last, is an opportunity to hear her on her own. And you couldn't be more on your own than in Bach's mercilessly revealing Solo Sonatas and Partitas, perhaps the ultimate test of technical mastery, expressiveness, structural phrasing and deep musical perception for a violinist. Playing a Baroque instrument, Podger challenges comparison with the much praised and individual reading by Monica Huggett: she has many of the same virtues – flawless intonation, warm tone, expressive nuances, clear understanding of the proper balance of internal strands – but her approach is sometimes markedly different.

J. S. Bach's second son, C.P.E. Bach, described the six Sonatas for Violin and Cembalo as "among the best compositions of my dear departed father", and went on to say how well they sounded and what pleasure they still gave him, although written some fifty years before. Over 300 years later these pieces still sound fresh and delightful.

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine and harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, critically acclaimed artists of interntional renown- and also close friends-record together for the first time on this album of J.S. Bach's complete sonatas for violin and harpsichord. The artists approach these works as Bach intended: as trio sonatas with equally important roles for the violin and the harpsichord's treble and bass lines. In addition to the six Sonatas, the album offers the remarkable and ravishingly poetic Cantabile, BWV 1019a, a free-standing work that Bach originally conceived as a movement of the Sonata, BWV 1019.

Gone are the days when Kazuhito Yamashita amazed and delighted us with his remarkable transcriptions of "Pictures at an exhibition" or Dvorak's "New World" transcription. 53 years later (Yamashita was born in 1961) has reached impeccable artistic maturity. His prodigious musicality and remarkable virtuosity can be evidenced throughout this double album.

There are two reasons to check out this disc of Bach's sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord. The first reason is that it features recordings of all three versions of the G major Sonata – the first five-movement version with three slow movements surrounded by the same Presto, the second six-movement version with two new movements that didn't appear in the first version, and the third and final five-movement version with three new movements that didn't appear in the two preceding versions.

A superb account of J.S. Bach's Sonatas for violin and harpsichord obbligato by Ryo Terakado and Fabio Bonizzoni.

Forkel's life of Bach was finally published in 1802, more than half a century after Bach's death. In it, following a long eulogy of Bach's genius and achievements, Forkel gives a list of the composer's music, first the engraved works and then the unpublished manuscripts, in the second category, at the head of Bach's chamber works and harpsichord concertos, he places the violin sonatas he had received from Emanuel. "Six Sonatas for the clavier with the accompaniment of violin obbligato. They were composed at Cöthen and may be reckoned among Bach's first masterpieces in this field.”