Bach’s music for solo violin is widely considered to be the finest ever written for the instrument. Completed more than 300 years ago, in 1720, it presents such technical, musical and emotional challenges that even today’s greatest players spend a lifetime perfecting it—including Greek virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos. “My highest dream was always to record the solo sonatas and partitas,” he tells Apple Music, a dream he has finally realised on Sei Solo. “Not from a career point of view, but simply to be able to arrive at the point where I felt could bring something new to it.”
Kavakos still remembers the first time he fully appreciated the power of Bach’s solo violin music: In his twenties, he was given a recording of sonatas and partitas by the legendary Baroque violinist Sigiswald Kuijken. “I realised that I wasn’t focusing on the playing, but on the music. This wasn’t playing in the way I was taught—it was violin playing in the service of a style, of a time in history.” The experience affected him so much that he stopped playing Bach in public for more than ten years, spending time practising it and experimenting with authentic gut strings and different bows. “I needed to absorb everything and create an interpretation that I could be happy with,” he adds. This recording, then, is both a document of a remarkable musical journey and the story of a personal reawakening. Read on as Kavakos talks us through it in-depth.
Violin Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006
“I wanted to start with the Third Partita because the opening movement was later transcribed by Bach for the opening sinfonia of ‘Cantata BWV 29’. The cantata’s title ‘Wir danken dir, Gott’ [‘We thank you, God’] is something we say not only when we pray, but also in everyday life. For me, this was a reason to begin the recording with this partita. But it’s also a good place to start because all of its movements are of a lighter character. The prelude is incredible. The way the music moves through the movement—with its harmonies and changes of mood—is, for me, the highlight of the whole partita.”
Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005
“The three sonatas are more serious works—each has four movements, including a prelude and a fugue. This prelude has a very repetitive motif that’s relaxing to listen to because it is so mathematical and so perfectly proportioned that it cleans all the emotions. With Bach, you always feel that everything is in the right place. Everything is in harmony. Lasting over 10 minutes, the fugue is the longest Bach wrote and is one of his most incredible. It has the rhythm of a gavotte, and the challenge is to maintain that dancing, swinging feel throughout, even when the fugue itself is travelling in different directions, constantly repeating and reinventing itself. I sometimes feel as though this fugue is like a journey for the soul. Next comes the largo, the kind of piece you can close your eyes and relax to, before the very virtuosic last movement.”
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 1003
“The first movement is like a narration, as if it’s telling a story, and it’s full of divine beauty. The fugue that follows is, again, very long and dramatic, but it ends in the key of A major, which feels cleansing, as if looking to a brighter future. But what I feel is really amazing about this sonata is the third movement, which has a continuous, repetitive bassline, which gives the effect of two voices sounding together. It’s one of my favourite encores. It’s also in C major, which, because there are no sharps or flats, feels very pure. And because the final movement returns to A minor, it feels even more cleansing.”
Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001
“The opening adagio is just so beautiful. Again, it’s like a narrative, and I try to make it sound like an improvisation. The fugue here is the shortest in all the sonatas, but it’s also the fastest. The theme constantly moves from one layer to another while the bass tries to keep up, like a shadow. The siciliana is in a major key, which adds a feeling of joy to the whole sonata, while the final movement creates an illusion of chords through a rapid series of notes. What I find amazing about Bach’s music is how he meanders from the home key—he takes his listeners to incredible places.”
Violin Partita No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002
“The partitas are generally of a lighter character, consisting of many movements. But this partita has a remarkable structure, in that each movement has a ‘double’, which means that each movement has a variation—a brother or a sister, if you like. So, the allemanda, for instance, is very ceremonial, very strong, but its double is like an echo or a reflection. In a similar way, the sarabande feels quite stately, but its double is almost like composed silence. Each double presents the ideas of its partner movement in such different ways, challenging it in dimensions, volume and structure. And so, I would recommend always listening to each movement and its double as a single piece.”
Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
“The D Minor Partita is composed with the same structure as the other partitas, with an allemanda, a corrente, a sarabande and a gigue, which is a fantastic movement. Of these movements, I really love the sarabande, and violinists often play it as an encore. But then we come to the final movement, ‘Ciaccona’. It’s a unique piece in all of Bach’s works, a series of variations that has never been equalled. When I say it has a religious quality, I don’t mean in the sense of the church, but a belief in something supernatural, something we can only try to approach. It’s in three sections: D minor, D major and D minor again. The opening D minor section is like reality, before the middle section, which represents the dream. Finally, as the chaconne moves back to D minor, we’re faced with having to reach that dream. As we began with ‘We thank you, God’, we end with the Trinity.”
