Bach - Sonatas & Partitas for Violin - Busch

Rating: 5/5

Review: 
Excellent

I think this is an excellent set.  I already have a number of recordings of the Sonatas and Partitas, including some quite brilliant interpretations by the likes of Isabelle Faust, Rachel Podger and Viktoria Mullova, but I think Christine Busch's recording stands with the best of them.

The music, of course, is sublime.  These are quite magnificent works which test the instrument and its player to extremes, and in the process produce some quite extraordinarily expressive and moving music.  Christine Busch is certainly equal to the technical challenge; her intonation is rock solid, she has a lovely tone and she makes these sometimes incredibly difficult pieces sound simple and natural.  Her interpretation is absolutely terrific, I think.  There is an elegance and grace running through this recording which never loses any of the intellectual weight or emotional impact, and the essential pulse of Bach beats throughout.  Busch is equally at home in the slow, tortured depths of the mighty Chaconne from the D minor Partita and in the quicker, more obviously dancing movements like the closing Allegro assai of the C major Sonata. 

The whole things simply glows, I think, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the excellence throughout.  The recorded sound is lovely with just the right degree of reverberation, and it's a really fine set all round.  Very warmly recommended.