Bach: Sei solo. Sonatas & Partitas for Violin

Featuring

Christine Busch
Johann Sebastian Bach

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Interpretation

For this recording, Christine Busch chose an 18th-century Baroque violin with gut strings and a Baroque bow (model around 1730) for a more exquisite and eloquent sound.

Recording & Production

The Phi label was created to preserve projects with Collegium Vocale Gent and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, aiming for a wider audience beyond concert-goers.

Compositional Technique

Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin are notable for their 'latent polyphony,' which requires the listener's 'inner ear' and cognitive synthesis, rather than a full acoustic realization of all notes.

Performer Biography

Christine Busch, the violinist on this album, is the leader of the orchestra of the Collegium Vocale Gent and is praised for her technical perfection and poetic imagination.

Compositional Technique

The Sonatas and Partitas exhibit a hidden architectural order, with precise proportions; for example, the first Partita is twice as long as the first Sonata.

Composition History

The title page of Bach's autograph manuscript for these works, dated 1720, proudly states 'a Violino senza basso accompagnato' (for violin without accompanying instrument).

Historical Context

Bach, an outstanding violinist himself, likely played these works in the 'chamber' of his music-loving Prince Leopold or for himself, not in public concerts.