Yehudi Menuhin said that Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin are the “Old Testament” of all violin playing. But even without such a sacred respect-demanding classification, these “Be Solo,” as Bach himself titled his cycle, are a perpetual challenge for every violinist and violinist. The son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach already said in 1774 about his father and these pieces: “He fully understood the possibilities of all violin instruments. This is evidenced by his solos for the violin and for the cello without bass. One of the greatest violinists once told me that he “I couldn’t have seen anything more perfect for becoming a good violinist… than the above-mentioned violin solos without bass.”
Frank Peter Zimmermann violins Bach – Culture
