Christine Busch - Sei Solo: Johann Sebastian Bach - Sonatas & Partitas for Violin (2012) 2CDs

Christine Busch shares the surname of an eminent German predecessor, himself a Bach violinist of the highest distinction. Christine Busch, however, comes from a very different lineage. Born in Stuttgart, she regularly leads the Collegium Vocale Ghent under their director Philippe Herreweghe, and earlier in her career she worked with Harnoncourt’s Concentus Musicus Wien. Though she’s made a number of recordings, she has now approached the Parnassus of the violin literature in this two-disc recording of the solo sonatas and partitas.

She plays on an eighteenth-century violin, possibly from the Tyrol, and her bow is a modern copy patterned after an original dating from around 1730. She has also taken the decision to use a facsimile of the autograph manuscript. Her probing musicianship and reluctance to take anything - editorially speaking - at face value is allied to a considered approach to all six works, generating performances of illuminating intelligence. This is of especial value in the contrapuntal movements, which she delineates with considerable clarity but also left hand deftness too. The resultant performances offer thus both clarity and nuance, and are delivered at speeds that may surprise those who were expecting, because of her baroque specialism, that she would race through the music. She is not simply a baroque specialist, after all, as her discography and her concert recitals demonstrate clearly.

Thus the Adagio of the G minor Sonata is both measured in tempo and not subject to scrunchy articulation. Accompanying figures are brought out; leading and accompanying strands duly recognised. Indeed, those playing a modern set-up will invariably take far faster tempi than Busch here, and at several other places in the set. The Allemande of the First Partita is thoughtfully set out, and her chordal playing in the Sarabande is judiciously weighted, lacking abrasive edge. She makes no attempt to force the rhythm or generate spurious excitement in the Tempo di Borea, so often over the years a test case study in Romanticist acceleration. Only occasionally, such as in the Fuga of the Second Sonata, does her deliberation in exploring the counterpoint sound devitalising.

Much of this playing honours the introspection of the music, along with its dance imperatives. The Chaconne from the Second Partita unfolds with logic and surety. It does not much deviate from its direct course, and nor is it subject to moments of excessive emotion - which is to say that it’s at a distant remove from the coiled intensity of the old Russian School in this music. One of her very best performances is the Third Sonata in which her sense of characterisation is strongly engaged and through the formal schema of Adagio, Fugue and Largo we arrive, finally, at the welcome release of an ebullient Allegro assai. With her steady control, and accumulation of expressive qualities, Busch make these intensities the more complete. Lest this give the impression of a certain metronomic determination about her playing - well, far from it. She explores decided subtleties of rubati in the Preludio of the Third Partita in particular.

In terms of phrasing, balance between left and right hand, and tonal nuance these are excellent performances. Their slightly reserved, almost interior dialogues may surprise; and so too the measured tempi. For a historically informed set of the Sonatas and Partitas that reflects technical and expressive control, these performances are highly commended.

Review by Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb-International.com

Having worked with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Vienna Concentus Musicus, as well as with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Christine Busch is equally at home with both Baroque and modern violins. In her recording of Bach’s Partitas and Sonatas for unaccompanied violin, Busch has settled for the former, playing an 18th-century south German or Austrian instrument with a bow modelled on one dating from circa 1730.

I find Busch’s playing utterly compelling. As well as impeccable intonation, she sustains an eloquently punctuated and gently modulated dialogue, into which her listener is immediately drawn. Her spacious tempos seem chosen to convey the musical argument with cogency and expressive charm. Nowhere is this more beneficial to our understanding of Bach’s supremely challenging art than in the great Chaconne of the D minor Partita and the formidable Fuga of the C major Sonata, with its myriad polyphonic subtleties and linear implications. Busch takes us on these extraordinary and demanding contrapuntal journeys with seeming effortlessness, bringing beautifully crafted shape to her phrasing as well as a pleasingly varied range. Seldom have I heard a violinist make such sense of this music.

A set to treasure, it has delighted my sensibilities from start to finish. The allegro assai of the C major Sonata is irresistible, and so is the playfully articulated Gavotte en rondeau of the E major Partita.

Review by Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 13. January 2016, 21:28

Christine Busch / Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for Violin - CD1

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GU70N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

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log date: 2016-01-20 01:56:53

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Analyzed: Christine Busch / Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for Violin - CD1
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
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DR14 -0.41 dB -17.74 dB 5:35 02-Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001 - Fuga
DR13 -5.68 dB -22.31 dB 2:57 03-Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001 - Siciliana
DR14 -2.42 dB -20.24 dB 3:57 04-Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001 - Presto
DR14 -1.78 dB -20.27 dB 6:01 05-Partita No.1 in B minor, BWV 1002 - Allemande
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DR15 -0.53 dB -19.75 dB 3:39 11-Partita No.1 in B minor, BWV 1002 - Tempo di Borea
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DR14 -1.30 dB -18.39 dB 8:27 14-Sonata No.2 in A minor, BWV 1003 - Fuga
DR14 -5.03 dB -23.11 dB 5:12 15-Sonata No.2 in A minor, BWV 1003 - Andante
DR13 -2.99 dB -18.86 dB 6:07 16-Sonata No.2 in A minor, BWV 1003 - Allegro
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Bitrate: 743 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Exact Audio Copy V1.1 from 23. June 2015

EAC extraction logfile from 14. January 2016, 1:11

Christine Busch / Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for Violin - CD2

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GU70N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
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Read offset correction : 48
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Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
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foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2016-01-20 01:57:15

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Analyzed: Christine Busch / Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for Violin - CD2
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR14 0.00 dB -20.72 dB 4:43 01-Partita No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004 - Allemande
DR15 -2.91 dB -21.35 dB 2:39 02-Partita No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004 - Corrente
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DR15 -1.88 dB -21.45 dB 3:46 11-Partita No.3 in E major, BWV 1006 - Loure
DR15 -0.09 dB -20.53 dB 3:04 12-Partita No.3 in E major, BWV 1006 - Gavotte en Rondeau
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DR13 -3.02 dB -21.66 dB 1:49 14-Partita No.3 in E major, BWV 1006 - Menuet II
DR14 -3.62 dB -21.55 dB 1:36 15-Partita No.3 in E major, BWV 1006 - Bourйe
DR14 -2.95 dB -20.88 dB 1:54 16-Partita No.3 in E major, BWV 1006 - Gigue
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 16
Official DR value: DR14

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Bitrate: 742 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================