Bach & Reger: Pièces pour violon solo

Tokyo-born violinist Sayaka Shoji was just 16 when she became the youngest-ever winner of the Paganini Competition in Genoa in 1999. Released the following year, her debut recording with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic of Paganini, Chausson and Waxman confirmed the arrival of a considerable talent. A decade later, Shoji had clearly grown as a musician, displaying an impressive maturity and strength of personality on this superb solo anthology of Bach and Reger. The two composers make for an inspired pairing. Reger worshipped the music of Bach, and his own works for solo violin—immaculately and daringly performed here—are direct homages to Bach’s peerless counterpoint and profound emotional depths. But there are few more challenging or rewarding pieces in the violin repertoire than the mighty “Chaconne” from Bach’s Partita No. 2, to which Shoji brings a suppleness of expression, a varied tonal palette, spiritual intensity and poetic imagination. Her astonishing playing lingers long in the memory.