The
Bach unaccompanied violin sonatas have been worthy objectives
for accomplished players for centuries; but the real problem is
not who can play these fiendishly difficult works, but how they
should be performed. The Sonatas contain both French and Italian
influences and there are fugues in all of them. The soloist is
confronted not only with the technical problems created by the
contrapuntal nature of the music but also its melodic and harmonic
complexity; yet its very freedom from academic conventions leaves
such questions open. For these reasons playing them is a daunting
prospect.
There
are marked differences in construction, and therefore in the sound,
between baroque violins and those of the 19th century
onwards. This disc is recorded with a Pietro Giovanni Guarneri
of Bach’s time, though with significant alterations that make
it, for practical purposes, a ‘modern’ instrument. It has steel
strings and is played with a modern bow at ‘modern’ pitch (A=440).
This creates some interesting problems for both player and listener.
Greening-Valenzuela plays expressively throughout, and his technical
resources are impressive, but it is impossible not to make comparisons
with the softer sound of gut strings and the flexible and expressive
possibilities of the baroque bow, especially in matters of articulation
and ornamentation.
From
the opening bars of the G minor Sonata we are clearly in for a
thrilling time, with finely marked counterpoint and somewhat measured
tempi; but in movements that call for a less magisterial approach
often leads to a certain slackness and lack of colour in the playing.
This disc would not be my choice for this inexhaustible music
but makes for interesting comparisons with more historically based
performances.
Roy
Brewer
James Greening-Valenzuela
(violin)