For those unaware, newly signed to the naïve label, violinist Fabio Biondi, the celebrated founder and director of Europa Galante, here presents his interpretation of one of the major peaks of the solo violin repertoire: the Sonatas and Partitas of Bach.

For many years a passionate devotee of this Holy Grail of violinists, and having performed many of the works individually in the course of his career, Fabio Biondi is now, at the age of sixty, using his maturely ripened art to record the complete set for the very first time: it is the culmination of long and patient study, as well as of a process of personal development.

For years Biondi was intimidated by Bach’s writing for solo violin: so intimate, yet so universal, so close to the essence of things – which the music often expresses through silence and pure, untranslateable sound – and so technically demanding as well.

CD 1:
1-4 Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001
5-12 Partita No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002
13-16 Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 1003

CD 2:
1-5 Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004
6-9 Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005
10-16 Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006

To reveal the music’s profound meaning, its vitality and contemporaneity, and to share his findings with others: this is what has impelled him to record this album.

Recorded in June last year and captured within a rather beguiling, detailed soundscape all of its own, most listeners will be familiar with Bach’s double triptych of Sonatas and Partitas, without necessarily knowing them in detail.

All the well-known landmarks are here - the famous Bourrée of the First Partita, the challenging Chaconne of the Second, the lively introductory Preludio and sprightly Gavotte en rondeau of the Third Partita. Fabio Biondi makes these thirty-two dances intensely present in his infinitely nuanced interpretation.

And yet here, Biondi’s trademark tonal opulence, complete with lashings of smothering warmth, incandescent phrasing and gently vibrated, tonal intensity, all come together to bring forth the naturalness and, dare I say, humanity of his very own expressionism and stylistic approach.

Here on Bach: Sonatas & Partitas, Biondi casts a veritably translucent light over each and every piece of the 2CD set, at all times enticing each note, each melody to dance to his own manifesto, and yet never allowing them to stray too far as to dilute the original heartbeat.

To complement his musical presentation, he asked Akira Mizubayashi, a Japanese writer of French novels permeated by a musical sensibility, for a newly written work with which to grace the CD booklet.

Amazon Purchase Link