Program Notes

Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

The D minor Partita begins by presenting the classic or most nearly standard group of dances, an allemande (fairly leisurely 4/4 time with almost continuous movement in sixteenth notes), a courante (in three and relatively quick—this is an Italian corrente without the rhythmic implications of a real French courante), a sarabande (grave, in three, with a strong division between the first and second beats), and a gigue (quick, with metrical divisions in multiples of three—this one in 12/8). Then, however, Bach gives us something in addition that turns out indeed to equal in length the rest of the partita put together and far to outdo it in magnificence and weight of utterance. This is the famous Chaconne, a set of variations on an eight-bar chord sequence. Midway Bach runs a group of variations in D major—our first, and wonderful, encounter with that key in the piece—and then returns to the original D minor. The whole piece is an extraordinary conjunction of architectural majesty with fanciful bravura display of the instrument.

Bach Works for Solo Violin

Bach supplied violinists with great masterpieces to play, including nine sonatas for violin and harpsichord, a handful of concertos, and featured obbligato roles in his cantatas and passions. But the unquestioned pinnacle of his writing for the violin is the set of six unaccompanied works—three called sonatas, three called partitas—which he completed in 1720, midway through his six-year tenure as Capellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen.

Bach knew the violin repertory well, and in writing such works, was claiming a place in a solid tradition. That repertory included a considerable body of unaccompanied pieces by Heinrich von Biber, Johann Jakob Walther, Johann Paul von Westhoff, and, Johann Georg Pisendel.

In Bach's solo violin works the listener perceives a web of counterpoint that is in fact only suggested or implied in the musical score. Bach deftly provides the soloist with music full of challenges and possibilities, but its fullness cannot be realized in an artistic and beautiful way without two further components, both of which are essential: an adept, imaginative violinist and a superlative instrument.