The sonatas and partitas for solo violin are a series of violin solo works that represent a summit in the music for this instrument written to the date it was written, and to this day, and is a challenge to surpass it. The second partita, especially the Chaconne, occupy a very special place. It is much longer than usual for a dance in a partita, much deeper, much more tense, anguished, much more complex technically, really a search for the limit. It was strongly influenced by Biber, specifically by his passacaglia. The player is forced to extremes of technical demand, several strings played simultaneously, several melodies running in parallel on a single instrument. It is so difficult that has been used as a "doctoral thesis" for students graduating from violin studies. It is a painful, beauteous, tense, sad, crying work. Just today (I am 78) I learned why.. Bach wrote this music as an loving sorrowful epitaph to his first wife, Maria Barbara, who died while he was travelling. I would wish to die with an epitaph like this. I would be happy with a simpler piece (how about the sarabande of the 5th suite for solo cello?). James Ehnes - whom I did not know - gives us a beautiful rendering of this masterful artwork. Thanks Contrapunctus XIX..
The sonatas and partitas for solo violin are a series of violin solo works that represent a summit in the music for this instrument written to the date it was written, and to this day, and is a challenge to surpass it. The second partita, especially the Chaconne, occupy a very special place. It is much longer than usual for a dance in a partita, much deeper, much more tense, anguished, much more complex technically, really a search for the limit. It was strongly influenced by Biber, specifically by his passacaglia. The player is forced to extremes of technical demand, several strings played simultaneously, several melodies running in parallel on a single instrument. It is so difficult that has been used as a "doctoral thesis" for students graduating from violin studies. It is a painful, beauteous, tense, sad, crying work. Just today (I am 78) I learned why.. Bach wrote this music as an loving sorrowful epitaph to his first wife, Maria Barbara, who died while he was travelling. I would wish to die with an epitaph like this. I would be happy with a simpler piece (how about the sarabande of the 5th suite for solo cello?). James Ehnes - whom I did not know - gives us a beautiful rendering of this masterful artwork. Thanks Contrapunctus XIX..
16:37 ❤️.