On this recording, Giuliano Carmignola plays a Pietro Guarneri violin made in Venice in 1733 and a bow made by Emilio Slaviero in 2007, modeled after an 18th-century design by Nicolas Léonard Tourte.
Composition History
Bach composed these Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin in 1720 while serving as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, a musically fertile period.
Interpretation
Giuliano Carmignola, the performer, uses a slimmed-down vibrato and a freely expressive approach to rhythm and pace, informed by historical performance practice.
Compositional Technique
Bach's three Sonatas are modeled after the 'sonata da chiesa' (church sonata), each with four movements alternating slow and fast.
Composer Biography
Bach, though renowned as an organist, was also a fine violinist, and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach stated he played the violin purely and penetratingly.
Composition History
The solo violin works were not published until 1802, more than 50 years after Bach's death, and there is no indication they were publicly performed in his lifetime.
Compositional Technique
The Partitas are based on the 'sonata da camera' (chamber sonata) model, essentially a suite of dance movements like Allemande, Corrente, Sarabande, and Gigue.
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