Bach - Violin sonata in E minor BWV 1023 - Sato and Van Delft | Netherlands Bach Society

The violin gets straight down to business with a whirlwind of semiquavers in this Violin sonata in E minor, performed by Shunske Sato and Menno van Delft for All of Bach. It’s clear that one instrument is in the spotlight here, and it isn’t the harpsichord, as is often the case in Bach’s other surviving sonatas for violin and harpsichord (which we often refer to confusingly as violin sonatas).
This four-part work with virtuoso violin part immediately raises the question of who Bach actually wrote it for. He is a candidate himself, as the violin was his very first instrument. Or could it have been written for Johann Georg Pisendel, the leading violinist of Central Germany at the time. The two men got to know each other in 1709, following which they had a long professional relationship, and were probably friends too, even when Bach settled in Leipzig and Pisendel was celebrating his triumph at the court in Dresden. Today, that is the home of the only source of this Violin Sonata in E minor; a few full pages written in the neat hand of Pisendel’s copyist.
Recorded for the project All of Bach on May 22nd 2020 at the art museum Mauritshuis, The Hague. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please subscribe to our channel bit.ly/2vhCeFB and consider donating bit.ly/2uZuMj5.
This recording was made possible by our partner Deloitte.
For more information on BWV 1023 and this production go to allofbach.com/e...
All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society / Nederlandse Bachvereniging, offering high-quality film recordings of the works by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by the Netherlands Bach Society and its guest musicians. Visit our free online treasury for more videos and background material www.bachvereni.... For concert dates and further information go to www.bachvereni....
Shunske Sato, violin
Menno van Delft, harpsichord
Violin (instrument): Cornelius Kleynman, ca. 1684
Harpsichord (instrument): Bernd Fischer, 1984 after Claude Labrèche
0:00 [...]
1:18 Adagio ma non tanto
4:35 Allemande
8:50 Gigue