Kyung-Wha Chung - J.S. Bach: Complete Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Solo (2016)

Calificado en Estados Unidos el 29 de octubre de 2016
Preparation for this recording has been the project of lifetime for Ms Kyung Wha Chung. In leaflet she confesses this with gratitude. She recorded earlier the 2nd Partita and the 3rd sonata for Decca.

I never warmed much for her first attempt on Bach, but liked this set from the start. She plays with humility, which is always a very good attitude for Bach. In g minor sonata there is a touching, reflecting quality, usually combined with the late Beethoven Quartets. Her playing is about the fragility of life, but about dance as well. There is plenty of movement and dynamics in every section, long phrasing and right accents to serve the music. Her interpretations are free of vain shyness, there is a completely convincing emphasis on playfulness. The remarkable technique and experience of the player are never underlined, but they are there to serve the listener towards better understanding of these works. I have never enjoyed these works so much.

One highlight is the big Fuga of the 2nd Sonata: it sounds like a whole string orchestra and fascinates like looking into flames at the fireside - an inspired and well-studied reading. The swift-moving Allegro ending the same Sonata is another highlight.

In the famous 2nd Partita, the starting Allemanda is played in big arches, flowing like a brook. This is an interpretation that helps one concentrate on music - one soon finds being in center of Ciaccona almost without noticing gap between movements. For Kyung-Wha Chung the last movement is not a showpiece, but about the deepest reflection and meditation - there are passages where the same chilling wind blows like in the last movement of Chopin's 2nd Piano Sonata.

The 3rd Partita is by its structure the clearest dance series of them all, a very French, containing also rare Loure - slow gigue, originating from Normandie, according the leaflet. All is played buoyantly and carefree - just like the core of this music is. These works are almost 300 years old but they are still here and able to make our mind or feet move.

The recording, at St George's, Bristol, is airy and beautiful. The leaflet is short, but interesting - concentrating on the performance history for these works. The early Bach enthousiasts, Mendelssohn and Schumann liked to add up something to these works. Joseph Joachim and Pablo de Sarasate were the first to take these works into the regular performing tradition as they are. Menuhin is specially mentioned as a pioneer to record these all the first time. The roots of unaccompanied violin music are in the works of Biber, Walther, Westhoff and Pisendel - it is probable that Bach knew their works very well and based his vision of possibilities of the solo violin on that ground.