“I simply play his music alive, then the brilliance in it unfolds,” is how Nathan Milstein describes his dealings with the described three sonatas and three partitas for violin solo, which Johann Sebastian Bach composed between 1714 and 1720 and left behind him under the title “Sei Solo” in a calligraphy from 1720 that is captivating in its vitality and expressiveness. This sentence reflects Milstein’s conviction that “music should have no tendencies”. So “his” Bach playing was characterized by tonal clarity and sovereignty of the violin, free from ideology. Many violinists have followed suit without ever reaching or even forgetting Milstein’s unique power of visualization.
Through experience with historical performance practice since the 1960s at the latest, however, some things have changed fundamentally: there are hardly any violinists of any repute who are not grappling with ornamentation techniques, variable use of vibrato and questions as to whether a baroque bow whose stick is not bent inwards , and gut strings are no better suited for performing Bach’s solo pieces than the modern bow and steel strings. Apart from all these problems, violinists have to deal with these pieces for a lifetime anyway, that’s obvious.
The pandemic came to the rescue of three master violinists – Fabio Biondi, Leonidas Kavakos and Frank Peter Zimmermann – by temporarily shutting down concert life, suddenly giving them the leisure they probably needed to be able to devote themselves to Bach without external distractions . Biondi, born in 1961, renowned baroque violinist, founder and conductor of the baroque ensemble “Europa galante”, certainly performed the sonatas and partitas in concert. But the importance and popularity of these works and all the music-historical knowledge and discussions made him hesitate until now.
Fabio Biondi decorates the repetitions within the movements in a convincing and varied way
Incidentally, there is something special about the title “Sei Solo” because the plural for six solos should be “Sei Soli” in Italian. But “Sei Solo” can also be understood differently than “You are alone”. The idea that it could be an allusion to the sudden, mysterious death of Bach’s first wife Maria Barbara is obvious. Bach was on a fortnight’s tour with his prince. When he returned to Köthen, Maria Barbara was already dead and buried. In particular, the most powerful movement in terms of scope and meaning, the “Ciaccona” from the D minor Partita, is often understood as Bach’s reaction, as a kind of ringing epitaph to the deceased. In general, Bach incorporated echoes of chorales, then number mysticism and other allusions into the pieces. Even if a player like Biondi knows all this, there is still the task of direct technical and musical realization. For every violinist, the performance also becomes an encounter with oneself, one’s own maturity, serenity or the courage to take risks. Playing the “Sei Solo” is ultimately also an act of self-assurance.
Biondi succeed in the three partitas in a light-footed and characteristic manner. Bach designed it very variably and diversely: The first Partita in B minor offers four dance movements Allemanda, Corrente, Sarabanda and Tempo di Borea. But Bach added a linear-figurative double to each chordal movement, so that the piece consists of four pairs of movements. The second Partita in D minor ends in the Ciaccona that explodes the dimensions, the third in E major is French with an opening Preludio, which includes a lyrical Loure, a boldly transforming Gavotte en Rondeau, two elegant Menuets, and a brisk Bourrée and the fast-paced final gigue follow.
Biondi decorates the repetitions within the movements in a convincing and varied way. This also happens in the sonatas, which each begin with a slow movement, then plunge into fugues, then come to rest in gentle, slow movements before ending quickly and virtuosically. But the large movements such as the fugues or even more so the Ciaccona are too detailed for the Sicilian violinist, sometimes even short of breath. Of course there are beautiful passages, but the balance that the sonatas need as a whole for their four movements, despite all their differences, does not really want to succeed.
Leonidas Kavakos plays immaculately and carefully. But is that enough for Bach?
(Photo: imago/Michel Neumeister)
Leonidas Kavakos, born in 1967, leaves a completely different impression. His playing is flawless on the violin, careful in intonation, tasteful in the ornaments, and he does not show false pathos in the fugues or in the ciacona. He also does not level out the differences in the dance movements in the partitas and knows how to use vibrato discreetly. Nevertheless, his recording as a whole tends towards a private affair, introspection, as if he were actually playing more for himself. In a sense, there is no projection onto the audience. With this, Kavakos end up with the “Sei Solo” strangely casual with the highest instrumental quality and great seriousness.
In Frank Peter Zimmermann, too, someone encounters themselves, listens to themselves while playing Bach.
(Photo: Angel Medina/imago/Agencia EFE)
On the other hand, Frank Peter Zimmermann, born in 1965: he had often memorably added movements from the bundle of sonatas and partitas in concert, but he was held back from performing the whole corpus or a recording by doubts and reservations of various kinds. Corona has now ensured that he has come to terms with himself and Bach. He has now recorded the A minor Sonata, the D minor and the E major Partita. Here, too, someone encounters himself, listens to himself while playing Bach. Zimmermann has mastered the shaping of time like no other, never giving the impression of false haste or, conversely, of an equally false slowness in meaning. Rather, he gently but irresistibly guides the listener into Bach’s violin realms. The A minor Sonata grows organically and unfolds in all its balance from the dark Grave to the absurdity of the Fugue. The dreamlike swinging Andante releases you from that, before the consequent Allegro movement brings the end. Zimmermann develops the D minor partita, always endangered by too much willingness and a furrowed brow, with almost no pressure and thus enters the Ciaccona, which then imperceptibly but inexorably widens to ever greater magnitude.
After the Partita in E major, whose violinistic splendor, richness of form and bright colors Zimmermann clearly visualizes, the excitement continues for the second part of the “Sei Solo”, which will hopefully follow soon. But beyond all the meritorious, successful and interesting recordings, the wish remains to encounter Bach’s sonatas and partitas live in concert here and now. That is where the true self-assurance for artists and audiences takes place.