Bach's violin partitas

Dear Rodrigo,
thanks for your reaction.

Just a few things I would like to add:
I'm still doubtful about the link between Leonhardt/Harnoncourt and the 60's/70's generation. Harnoncourt started already in the 50's with his Concentus Musicus. Ofcourse, they had long whiskers in those days, but hey .... every 'real' man had those.

I never read Harnoncourt's comments where you were referring at, but I think his writings were meant to be like a 'manifesto', to make clear why had had chosen for a Bach like his. Because in those days his performances were quite .... different. ('Manifesto' sounds a bit more 'friendly' than 'propaganda', wouldn't you agree?)

Leonhardt and Harnoncourt were pioneers. Which makes it kinda logical that they felt the urge to write these manifestos.

About HIP: sure, we can start a thread, but you must know that I am not really a regular visitor of the forum. I need some of my spare time for other things, too. But maybe there are other contributors and members who would love to discuss about HIP, too. I myself am definitely not a one-sided 'believer' in the HIP-religion, but I'm happy with their revolution nevertheless.
But I do not believe in a semi-HIP Wohltemperiertes Klavier on piano. And I fear that there isn't really a 'HIP musician' at this moment who would like to do his Bach on piano, either. To my ears, the differences between harpsichord and piano are way to large. I like to listen to them both, BTW, but in Bach I (slightly) prefer the harpsichord. It just depends on what mood I'm in.

Well, I go to sleep. I just returned home dancing from a Abba-party, and I'm tired now.
You see, you can pamper me with different kinds of music: Bach, Mahler, Brel, Abba, Joy Divison .... not to mention all the other ones.

Good night!

 

For the partitas

I love Viktoria Mullova's interpretation.
However, I also like Susanne Lauterbacher and Christian Tetzlaff. Susanne Lauterbacher's interpretation is very appealing in that she connects the music to flow coherently, and she empahizes a pulling force. However, it may sound too homogenous at times, like a single singing voice. Tetzlaff plays virtuously and brings the dancing aspects of the music. Also, the music sounds more complex, and there is more to discover compared to Lautenbacher.
Mullova does not connect the notes like the others, but often plays the music like single small units that then blend in the head of the listener. That gives it abstract, heavenly touch that I like a lot.
Sorry, I am no musician, and my descriptions may sound funny.

 

I quite agree with what you say about Lautenbacher and Tetzlaff; Mullova I have never listened to, but your description makes sense.

I now have so many versions of the Partitas and Sonatas I am a bit unwilling to buy another set.

 

MAJOR VERSION! EXTRAORDINARY

Yesterday I finally went to a shop and I was able to listen to a part of the Mullova set (2009?). I was impressed, and on impulse I also bought the trio sonatas (with Dantone).

I was extremely impressed by the way Mullova plays the baroque violin. For the very first time I didn't feel all the limitations I always found in the period version.

I found her playing sublime. Indeed I found it so enthralling I listened to the whole set.

It is as if there is no instrument between the player and the music, and the players ideas were all extremely convincing. The baroque violin suddenly acquired dynamics, expression, flow, all the things I like in music.

I was very impressed by the third fugue: it is a very difficult bit of music (I'm not referring to playing, just to musical structure), and most versions come across as boring: you think all is going to end and then the theme appears in inversion. With other versions I found myself feeling fed up.

With Mullova, the last part is truly the coronation of the work: polyphony and counterpoint are actually present, sound is beautiful, all is powerfully expressive and yet not too agressive (as it sometimes is).

She really is a marvelous musician. The trio sonatas are equally a marvel.

Two must haves, I think.

 

I find this a perfect description.

 

No one has mentioned Oscar Shumsky. This is by far and away my favourite recording. That was until one of the CDs partly escaped out of the box while on the CD rack and got sandwiched and the foil got scraped when I put another CD on the shelf. Absolutely heartbroken - as it wasn't just my favourite recording of the Bach, it was my favourite recording full stop! The attack on the notes, a full emotional experience, with that added Jewish folksy attitude, especially in the Gmin Fuga. No other recording I have sounds convincingly like there are two violins playing at once. I can sometimes still get the whole of the Gmin to play, but otherwise its just disk 2.

 

I suppose this item is OOP too, which of course makes it hard to get.
But you might try a library, one of the larger ones. In some cases they have a surprisingly large catalogue! So who knows.

 

Maybe it is just me, - I wondered what the .... Jewish folksy attitude has got to do in a Bach fugue.

 

Cheers! I hadn't thought of the library idea - i'll go and have a look. Last I looked there was someone selling the CD second hand through amazon for over £1800, but that was a couple of years ago.

 

Its a hint, thats all, but I like it; definitely emotional Bach. I understand that others like their Bach a-emotional, straight, even that dread word "authentic", but to me all the recordings I've heard have a certain stamp.

 

HIPsters - or what you may call them - do not want a-emotional playing, they just ask for stylish playing, and that is something quite different from a-emotional playing.

 

This forum is quite Bach oriented. uh?
I think it is ok if aunt Hulda plays the partitas with the violin that uncle george built from scrapwood.
No big deal!

 

May I remind you of the immortal hero Uuno Turhapuro who became a master violinist just by briefly attending a postal course

 

And may I shed a tear for this anonymous yet genious violinist, who was never to play the violin again, for she got seriously injured after this accident, shortly before she was to record the best ever performance of Bach's solo violin pieces?

 

Never wondered why Mendelssohn was that fond of Bach?

 

Dear pe-zulu

Could you elaborate a little on what the Jewish folksy attitude is? I mean, I understand that Mahler's music reminds one of a Jewish trait (laughing about one's miseries). But with Bach?

Many Jews I read or I know (but by no means all) have a curious trait: words recall other words, and very soon the original notion of the concept used is completely distorted. But Bach is almost the opposite of this: a theme is a theme, its inversion is the theme but upside down, and so on: the reasoning is almost mathematical, and no 'wordy' at all (the meaning of 'wordy' is 'polysemous' (or polysemic), that is, a word with two meanings may be used as a device to shift meaning – more or less as in enharmonic tones).

Another trait is a somewhat 'agitated' view of things, perpetually moving from a meaning to another.

A very good example of all this is the recently deceased Claude Lévi-Strauss. His 'La Pensée Sauvage' is a prime example of how a work becomes unintelligible by this constant shifting through polysemy.

But again, I completely fail to see that in Bach.

(And as the opposite, we have Lucien Lévy-Bruhl: he was a Jew but had none of those characteristics: he pursued his aim doggedly to his death).

Anyway, all this to say (I know this post is very 'Jewish' itself, although I am not a Jew, as far as I know) that I did not understand what you meant (I must definitely be a Jew, after all!).

I'll keep the post as it is, because it is an excellent example of the trait I am trying to capture!

 

Oh, the pooor, poor, girl... I hope you had the chance to comfort her! She seems so sad and unprotected!

 

I see I have not commented on Ingrid Matthews version mentioned by our good friend the Vampÿr.

When I got it, I liked it a lot. Now I am unable to listen to it because my trusted CD player has become untrustworthy: with certain records it starts jumping back and forth... The Matthews version is one of the CD's I can no longer listen to. (By the way, what can I do about it?). I did try to listen to it but I cannot form a very coherent vision because of the problems.

That said, Matthews version impressed me a great deal. The sound is magnificent, rich yet brilliant, a bit cavernous yet very intense and present. The structure is extremely clear. You won't find any frivolity: all is serious and deeply felt, with a lot of intense inner emotion.

I would say a major version. Perhaps I like it even better than Mullova's, but then I don't know because of the problems with the CD player.

 

I bet she was just about to blaze through the Chaconne. That's why she has undressed - to keep her cool.

Was that a Stradivarius or Guarneri ?

 

http://www.cheapviolinstore.com/

(Like Pete Townshend, who only smashed his cheap guitars, with a special mark on them. Although sometimes he made mistakes. )