Bach: Testament – Complete Sonatas And Partitas For Solo – Barton Pine

   in Early Music Today (Dec, 2016)
Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin occupy, technically and expressively the highest position on the Parnassian slopes. They were not without precedent. Biber, Walther, von Westhoff whom Bach must have encountered at Weimar, and one or two others having written pieces for unaccompanied violin in the latter half of the previous century. Bach though, pushed the boundaries to their limits with intimidating technical requirements, contrapuntal exuberance, poetic expression and almost unfathomable subtlety. Why, or for whom, Bach wrote his unaccompanied violin music is not entirely clear but it is at least possible that he simply wished to explore and document as many different aspects of musical form as possible.

Communicative, …