Antje Weithaas - Bach & Ysaÿe Vol. 1 (2014) [Official Digital Download]

Antje Weithaas launches her trilogy of solo violin albums with the first work in each cycle. It was Antje Weithaas’s own idea to jointly record Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin in conjunction with Eugène Ysaÿe’s six solo violin sonatas. “The works by Bach are rather well-known”, she remarks. “But Ysaÿe is invariably shoved into the virtuoso corner, but as a composer he is to be taken quite seriously!”.

Eugène Ysaÿe‘s son remembers that his father started composing the solo violin sonatas when he heard Joseph Szigeti, a violinist younger than himself, play Bach in Brussels in 1923. Antje Weithaas sees many parallels with Bach’s Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin, BWV 1001: “The works have similar structures.”

“Both composers wrote technically challenging pieces featuring double stops and ornamental figurations. Although there is no proof for such connections, I’m quite certain that Ysaÿe had them in mind.” The fugues, in each case, represent quite a challenge. Each composer demands double and multiple stops from an instrument normally designed to play one part at a time. “The notes are written directly on top of one another, as the composer must have imagined them in his head, but not in the way they are to be executed. Since the performance tradition has not survived, we can only make guesses.”

“Antje Weithaas is one of the great violinists of our time.” (FonoForum)

Tracklist:
01. Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin Solo, BWV 1001: I. Adagio
02. Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin Solo, BWV 1001: II. Fuga
03. Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin Solo, BWV 1001: III. Siciliana
04. Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin Solo, BWV 1001: IV. Presto
05. Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin Solo, Op. 27: I. Grave – Lento assai
06. Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin Solo, Op. 27: II. Fugato – Molto moderato
07. Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin Solo, Op. 27: III. Allegretto – poco scherzoso aimabile
08. Sonata No. 1 in G Minor for Violin Solo, Op. 27: IV. Finale con brio – Allegro fermo
09. Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Violin Solo, Op. 27: I. Prélude ‘Obsession’. poco vivace
10. Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Violin Solo, Op. 27: II. Malinconia. Poco lento
11. Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Violin Solo, Op. 27: III. Sarabande ‘Danse des ombres’. Lento
12. Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Violin Solo, Op. 27: IV. Les Furies – Allegro furiose
13. Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 : I. Allemanda
14. Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 : II. Corrente
15. Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 : III. Sarabanda
16. Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 : IV. Giga
17. Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 : V. Ciacconna

Composers:
Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750)
Ysaÿe, Eugene (1858-1931)

Personnel:
Antje Weithaas, violin