5/5
Review:
Very good Bach
Needless to say, this is brilliant. James Ehnes is one of the finest violinists
currently performing, and the music, of course, is simply sublime.
Ehnes gives a remarkable performance here. He is outstanding technically, with perfect intonation
and a beautiful tone. This goes with a
firm confidence and an intensity throughout which drives these pieces at a high
emotional pitch. The great Chaconne is
very good and held me for the whole of its sixteen-plus minutes, while the less
intense Preludio from the Third Partita has a wonderful resonance about it
while still dancing – and Ehnes catches the dancing rhythms very well pretty
well throughout.
At this level of excellence preferences are based almost
entirely on personal taste, and I'm not sure this quite spoke to me as Rachel
Podger, Viktoria Mullova and Isabelle Faust do in their different ways. A little let up in the emotional intensity to
allow some more lightness and joy into the music would be welcome at
times. Also, in some places - parts of
the closing Presto of the First Sonata, for example - I thought the overall shape
of the music got a little lost, even though the playing never lost any of its
precision.
These are tiny factors, though, and largely personal
responses to these performances which you may well not share. Anything other than five stars would be
absurd for such a fine performance and this may well become a favourite with a
good many people. It's beautifully
recorded in a lovely acoustic which isn't over-resonant so Ehnes's violin
sounds just fabulous and I can recommend this as a very good set, even if it
isn't an absolute favourite of mine.
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