Search - Johann Sebastian Bach :: J.S. Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, BWV 1001-1006

Outstanding

Nails Parterre | Albuquerque, NM | 08/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hands down, this is *the* BEST version of Bach's "Sonatas & Partitas for Solo Violin" that I have heard. Let me explain.



I love Bach's Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin. I own albums by various artists. They are (along with my grade): Milstein (B), Heifetz (C), Grumiaux (B+), Perlman (B+), Szeryng (A), St John (D), Podger (A-), Hahn (A-).



Now until Fischer, Szeryng was my favorite. He had excellent tone, good technique, and very good dynamics. But Fischer blew me away. She had excellent tone, good technique, and excellent dynamics. If you want more of a baroque interpretation, go with Podger, but if tone, technique, and dynamics are what appeal to you then Fischer is definitely the album to get.



Miscellaneous: This is a Hybrid SACD. I wasn't sure it would play on my "vanilla" CD player, and when I asked the salesmen, they had no idea (typical salesmen, eh?). Anyway, it turns out that it does indeed play, so don't let the SACD label scare you away.



Also, this comes with a DVD--an interview and some playing snippets from the session. The DVD is quite short, about 15 minutes or so.



Finally, this set is a bit pricey, but I think it's worth every penny!"

What a Surprise!

TSENG Bruce | Hong Kong | 03/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I never thought this young violinist could play Bach in such a matured way. My version at home was Milstein, Szegeti, Kremer (not very good), and Grumiaux. But Julia Fischer's Bach has won so much praise and I just wonder why. Therefore I bought this pricy double SACD (no ordinary CD available).



I was surprised. It doesn't sound like she is young at all. According to Fisher, she played Bach every day. And she has been studying Bach since she was a little girl. No wonder she has attended to the details of it. The speed she took was relatively slow, especially for the Preludes and Sarabande. Her technique was impeccable, but it all sounded so natural. I once listened to Heifitz and I didn't quite like it. It sounded not like Bach. Fisher surely captured the elegance and warmth of one of Bach's most intelligent and intellectual works.



If you like Bach's Unaccompanied Sonata and Partita for Solo Violin, buy this. You won't regret. The recording quality was superb, too!"

Thoughtful Readings

Lawrence A. Schenbeck | Atlanta, GA USA | 01/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Bach's unaccompanied sonatas and partitas for solo violin can act as multiple litmus tests, mercilessly revealing a player's cultural, temperamental, intellectual, and technical selves. That is certainly the case with Julia Fischer's set. It shows her to be technically proficient and thoughtful in regard to the structures and, to some degree, the expressive (affective) content of these works. But it also tells the world that she is still a young artist, and that she may have more to say about this music -- and the temerity to say it -- after she's been around a while longer.



Listeners contemplating the purchase of yet another Bach Unaccompanied set will also have to look to their own tastes in deciding whether Fischer fits the bill. Have you long since acquired, and exhausted, the classic Milstein performances? Did you find Perlman nicely polished, or just a bit too slick? Did you respond well to Kremer's impetuosity and drama, or consider his approach overly rough and improvisatory?



In the liner notes, Ms. Fischer tells us that for years she has warmed up every day with these pieces. It shows. She is obviously familiar with them, and her technical security and sense of "what comes next" have benefited. But with familiarity comes a certain complacency, and warmups can encourage a performer to emphasize sheer mechanics: pitch accuracy, evenly smooth bowing, perfect finger coordination, etc. That is what I personally hear as a guiding principle in most of these interpretations. They are soft-edged, maintaining steady tempi, using the middle third of the bow, employing subtle and consistent accents, phrasing, and dynamic emphases.



Nothing wrong with those choices. In many aspects, they may lie closer than some others to what Bach had in mind. But I found myself respecting Fischer's efforts rather than becoming involved in the music itself. In the end I went back to Hilary Hahn's debut disc (which includes some but not all of these works) in order to hear controlled and thoughtful Bach performances with more passion, more bite (bowing at the frog when needed), and more overall humanity.



The SACD recording is quite good, but if anything it emphasizes the mellow, moderated quality of these performances with a violin timbre that is never unpleasant but seldom provides the range of colors that one might hope to hear, even in Bach. Especially in Bach?



I think Ms. Fischer is heard to better advantage in her Pentatone recording of the Russian concertos -- maybe she didn't feel a "Romantic" approach was as appropriate for Baroque music. The result sounds curiously old-fashioned, however, especially given the recent tendency in historically informed Baroque performance to emphasize drama and individualistic expression (e.g., Rachel Podger, Andrew Manze). By comparison, Julia Fischer's Bach comes off as a careful effort by a recent conservatory graduate. Still worth hearing, but perhaps more as an emblem of her undeniable promise."