1. Allemanda
2. Corrente
3. Sarabanda
4. Giga
5. Ciaccona

Bach completed his Six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin in 1720, during his time as Kapellmeister at the court of Köthen – a position he held from 1717 to 1723. The musicians at the Köthen court inspired Bach to some of his greatest instrumental works, including the Cello Suites, Orchestral Suites and Brandenburg Concertos.

It is not known for whom Bach composed the sonatas and partitas: possible candidates include the leader of the Köthen orchestra Joseph Spiess and Bach himself. The pieces were not published until 1802, and only became famous in the mid-19th century when the virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim began to perform them. They are now regarded as among the greatest works in the violin repertory.

While Bach’s solo violin sonatas follow the typical slow-fast, slow-fast four-movement structure of the Baroque chamber sonata, his partitas are inspired by dance forms, and are more individual in construction. The graceful Allemanda, lively Corrente and energetic Giga of Partita No 2 unfold a single line of continuous melody; by contrast the sombre Sarabanda uses multiple stoppings (where the violinist plays several notes at once) to create rich harmonies.

The closing Ciaccona is Bach’s longest single instrumental movement. He may have written it to commemorate his first wife Maria Barbara, who died in July 1720. It consists of 64 continuous variations on a noble four-bar theme. Among the many striking effects are the sense of dialogue Bach creates by using contrasting timbres across the violin’s range, the shift to D major in the central section, and the theme’s stately return to conclude the movement. Virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin termed the Ciaccona ‘the greatest structure for solo violin that exists’.

^{Note by Kate Hopkins}

Johann Sebastian Bach
^1685–1750

Bach was orphaned by the age of 10, and was subsequently raised by his elder brother. At 18 he became organist of St Bonifacius’ Church in Arnstadt. Here, not for the last time, Bach’s burgeoning talents as a performer brought him into conflict with the church authorities, who took exception to the young man’s elaborate improvisations and hymn accompaniments.

Bach swiftly outgrew the musical demands of Arnstadt, moving in 1707 to the wealthier church of St Blasius for whose choir and orchestra he wrote his first dateable works. The following year Bach was invited by the Duke of Weimar to become his court organist, and in 1714 was promoted to the post of Konzertmeister. With the support of the duke’s nephew, he was offered the vacant post of Kapellmeister at the neighbouring court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. Here he devoted much of his time to instrumental composition, from organ showpieces and ‘teaching’ works for keyboard to his magnificent Brandenburg Concertos.

As Kantor at Leipzig’s respected St Thomas School, Bach was expected to be schoolmaster and choir-trainer; director of music at two town churches and supervisor for that at two others; organist; composer, orchestral and choral fixer.

During his lifetime, Bach gained wide recognition as a virtuoso organist and keyboard player and gifted teacher, although only a handful of his compositions were published.

_{Profile by Andrew Stewart}

1. Tempo di ciaccona
2. Fuga: Risoluto, non troppo vivo
3. Melodia: Adagio
4. Presto

In 1943 Bartók heard Yehudi Menuhin perform his Second Violin Concerto and First Violin Sonata in New York and was much impressed. They met, and Menuhin promptly commissioned a solo violin work from Bartók. Although the composer was already ill with leukaemia, he responded enthusiastically, and by March 1944 had completed the Sonata for solo violin. Other than the Third Piano Concerto (1945) it was his last extended composition.

The Sonata for solo violin is one of the most difficult works in the repertory, with sudden leaps in register, rapid alternations between pizzicato and bowed phrases, multiple stopping, and copious use of trills, tremolos and glissandos. Even the virtuoso Menuhin asked Bartók to make changes – such as offering an alternative to a section written in quarter-tones – before the premiere.

Bartók’s chief inspirations for this sonata were Bach’s solo violin works, which he had heard Menuhin perform, and folk music. The influence of Bach is most apparent in the Tempo di ciaccona – whose declamatory opening melody pays tribute to Bach’s Ciaccona from his Second Partita for violin – and the playful ensuing Fuga, where Bartók uses multiple stopping to create increasingly complex textures. The exquisite Melodia features a long, lyrical melody, heard unadorned in the movement’s outer sections, and decorated by trills and tremolos in the central section. The sonata ends in a lively Presto which contrasts a rapid chromatic passage (performed with a mute) with two melodies of an indubitably folk-like character.

^{Note by Kate Hopkins}

Béla Bartók
^1881–1945

Born in 1881 in Hungary, Bartók began piano lessons with his mother at the age of five. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest, he discovered Austro-Hungarian and Slavic folk music, travelling extensively with his friend Zoltán Kodály and recording countless folk songs and dances which began to influence his own compositions.

Bartók established his mature style with such scores as the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin and his opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. He detested the rise of fascism and in 1940 he quit Budapest and travelled to the USA. At first he concentrated on ethno-musicological research, but eventually returned to composition and created a significant group of ‘American’ works, including the Concerto for Orchestra and his Third Piano Concerto.

Throughout his working life, Bartók collected, transcribed and annotated the folksongs of many countries, a commitment that brought little financial return or recognition but one which he regarded as his most important contribution to music.

^{Profile by Andrew Stewart}