Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin - Leila Schayegh
We are so blessed, I feel, to have a number of new recordings, stepped in historical practice, of Bach's solo violin works. Beyond the sound of the instrument, the HIP approach allows to challenge the traditions associated with performance of these works.
Such an example in this release from Ms. Schayegh is the bouncy jaunt of the first Borea in the First Partita, BWV 1002, or the articulations and the meaning of Bach's slur marks in the finale to the first sonata, BWV 1001. There's that jaunt in the reading of the Fugue from the second sonata, BWV 1003, too, which is perhaps a welcome inflection.
There are for me at this point too many good performances on record to be able to point to any single one as superlative; I have auditioned performances on both modern and baroque violins and the music itself is flexible enough, I've long felt, to accommodate a lot of different interpretive variations from performers idelogoically centered in different camps of performance.
Perhaps it's fairest to compare this recording with that by Amandine Beyer, who I imagine is of similar age to Ms. Schayegh and who shared the same teacher. Both performances have their merit; in the example of the second sonata's fugue, Beyer takes her time, while Schayegh's quicker, jauntier performance is equally interesting. Schayegh also pushes the tempo, especially at the start, with the famous Ciaconna. Call me old fashioned, but there's something about starting this one slow that resonates with me. The liner notes for this release eschews the suggestion that the piece is any way tied to the death of Bach's first wife; with the even faster rendition by Enrico Onofri, he seems to embrace the theory. Speed, then, might not have anything to do with us considering the piece as a testament to a passed mate.
Theories or not, I prefer Schayegh's rendition of this movement over that of Onofri, who typically is my go-to interpreter. It's that bounce she's infused elsewhere that makes the piece come alive. The treatment works in favor of the music and while I think other approaches work too, it's the biggest contribution I could make to this new recording overall, a palpable bounce. It's refreshing and no doubt requires fine microcontrol of dynamics.
This recording deserves it's spot next to those by Onofri, Beyer, Schmitt, and von der Goltz in the past decade, for me. My only disappointment is with the sound engineering; by comparison, it suffers from a type of tonal compression that I wish wasn't there. Of the competition mentioned, Beyer, I believe, benefits from the best engineering. Thankfully after some time with the album these matters fall to the wayside, but it unfortunately takes away from the warmth of Schayegh's violin of the opening Preludio of the third partita, BWV 1006, where I felt it was most pronounced.
Warmly recommended.
