Bach Sonatas Partitas Enes

The Konzertmeister of the Freiburger Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz, finally records the masterpiece of the repertoire for solo violin: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas.

Throughout the last decades Giuliano Carmignola has earned his reputation as one of the top interpreters of Baroque music.

The Violin Sonatas and Partitas manuscript, which has fortunately survived, is dated 1720. The first page of the autograph carries the note “Libro Primo”; Bach’s Cello Suites BWV 1007-1012 may have been regarded as the “Libro Secondo”. A dedicatee is not known. Johann Sebastian Bach composed his Violin Sonatas and Partitas/ when he was employed as Kapellmeister in Köthen (1717-1723) and probably completed the cycle in 1720. There is hardly any other work in the entire violin literature with such significance. Bach set new standards in playing and composition; these works have lost none of their topicality and brilliance to this day.

Elina Mustonen began playing the harpsichord at the age of eight. After completing her studies at the Sibelius Academy in 1983, she proceeded to the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam to study with Ton Koopman and was awarded a soloist diploma in 1988. In 2006 she obtained her Doctoral degree at the Sibelius Academy. The topic of her thesis was J.S. Bach's harpsichord pedagogy. Ever since her debut concert at the Jyväskylä Summer Festival in 1987 Ms. Mustonen has performed widely as a soloist and chamber musician. In addition to Finland, she has been heard in Estonia, Iceland, Germany, the UK, Italy, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal and the United States. Ms. Mustonen has appeared as a soloist with most of the Finnish orchestras such as the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Sinfonia Lahti and the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. Her repertoire includes not only the major Baroque concertos but also the harpsichord concertos of Francis Poulenc, Bohuslav Martinu and Manuel de Falla. Ms. Mustonen has made several critically acclaimed recordings. Her latest achievement is a complete recording of the Six Partitas by J.S. Bach.

Multi award winning Canadian violinist James Ehnes returns to the greatest body of work for solo violin: Bach’s 6 Sonatas and Partitas.

Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch is an unusually versatile violinist, predominantly known for her performance of period music but also excelling in many other styles and genres. Her position as concertmaster in the orchestra of Philippe Herreweghe is testament to her skill as an early music performer.

As part of my project "follow me with bach" in 2021 I performed all sonatas and partitas for violin solo by J.S.Bach (BWV 1001-1006) in one day in Würzburg in the pilgrimage church "Käpelle", the "Hofkirche" of the Würzburg Residence but also in an unusual place, the Würzburg main station. The concert in the train station was one of the most intense experiences I have ever had as a musician. For in this unfamiliar environment, the ambient noise there and in the coming and going of the audience surprised by the music, Bach, fascinating for everyone, unfolded a completely different power than in the concert hall. Bach in the train station became train station in Bach.

‘One player, one instrument, one composer: Bach’s unaccompanied violin music has always been the greatest for any player, young or old. Alina Ibragimova, only 23, is already its equal’ (The Guardian)

“Pure and penetrating” was the violin playing of Johann Sebastian Bach according to the tradition of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel: “He fully understood the possibilities of all violin instruments. This is testified by his soli for violin and cello without bass. One of the greatest violinists once told me that he had seen nothing more perfect to become a good violinist and he could advise nothing better than the violin soli without bass mentioned above.” When Carl Philipp Emanuel addressed these words in a letter to the musicologist and early Bach biographer Johann Nikolaus Forkel in 1774, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin were known to a still manageable, albeit growing circle of enthusiasts. Now these works are taken up on the present recording by Mikhail Pochekin.