Partita No. 3 for Violin in E Major

Bright and decidedly vivacious (how tellingly Bach exploits the ring of the open A and E strings), the E major Partita is perhaps the D minor Partita’s joyous photographic negative—and insists as much by opening not with a sober “Allemande” but with a “Preludio” whose breathtaking verve Bach would revisit twice over. (Reassigned to obligato organ it later put a spring in the step of the Wedding Cantata BWV 120; and, enriched with trumpets and drums, it would lend suitable celebratory panache to a cantata performed at the installation of the Leipzig City Council in 1731.) The “Preludio”, indeed, heralds a departure from the more usual dance sequence of the French Suite; and unusual too is the omission of a “Sarabande”. Bach, however, is generous with the dances he chooses to include. A rhythmically intricate “Loure” (a dance originating in Normandy) prefaces a not-so-stately “Gavotte en Rondeau”, whose episodes orbit the perky opening idea; and to a pair of contrasted minuets, the first aristocratic, the second more rustic thanks to an underpinning drone, he also adds a vigorous “Bourrée” complete with carefully calibrated dynamic contrasts for added piquancy. A gleefully skipping “Gigue” is all that’s needed to compound the infectious effervescence that has animated BWV 1006 from the very outset. About J.S. Bach’s Partitas and Sonatas for Solo Violin Although Bach was arguably the pre-eminent keyboard exponent of his age he began his career as a violinist. He preferred to direct the orchestra at Köthen from the string section, and, thanks to friendship with the likes of Westhoff and Pisendel, understood the instrument inside out. Just how profound was that understanding can be deduced from the Sei Solo (Six Solos) for “violin without bass accompaniment” that were assembled in a manuscript dated 1720. Pinnacles of the German violin tradition, the pieces cast an inquisitive eye on developments in Italy, comprising of three Partitas that acknowledge the dance-led sovereignty of the French Suites, and three Sonatas laid out along Italian “Church” lines alternating movements slow(ish) and fast.