Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin - Wallfisch (Flac) 2 CD










Bach - Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin - Wallfisch (Flac) 2 CD
Solo Violin | Eac, flac, cue | log, cover | 2 CD, 633 MB
March 10, 1997 | Hyperion | FileFactory








Elizabeth Wallfisch (born 28 January 1952) is an Australian Baroque violinist. She is renowned for her versatility across repertoire from various musical periods, and her particular talent in playing the music of the Baroque.

Wallfisch was a natural musician from a young age, debuting as a concert soloist at the age of 12 and taking part in such competitions as the ABC Concerto Competition. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Fredericke Grinke and was awarded, among other prizes, the President's Prize. At the age of 20 she won the Franco Gulli Senior Prize for violin, and was jointly awarded the Mozart Memorial Prize.

In 1974, Wallfisch won the prize for most outstanding performance of Bach in the Carl Flesch Competition, an award which surely indicated the acclaim she would receive as a Baroque violinist later in her career. She began to perform with and lead orchestras such as the London Mozart Players and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in England, thus establishing herself as a concert performer in that country.

The music and technique of the Baroque then became Wallfisch's main passion, as she developed a reputation as a specialist Baroque violinist. Playing on a period instrument, Wallfisch has recorded and performed many Baroque works, well-known and obscure, from Vivaldi's Four Seasons to the Pietro Locatelli Violin Concerti Op 3.

In 1989, she co-founded The Locatelli Trio (since re-named Convivium), along with Richard Tunnicliffe (cello) and Paul Nicholson (harpsichord). This renowned ensemble records and performs less well-known works from the Baroque, including violin sonatas by Locatelli, Corelli and Tartini.

Wallfisch has led many diverse ensembles and orchestras around the world to great acclaim - these include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hanover Band and the Raglan Baroque Players. In her home country of Australia, she has led such ensembles as the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

Academic positions, past and present, held by Wallfisch include Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, teaching at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and artist-in-residence at Melbourne University.



The Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin (BWV 1001–1006) are a set of six works composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. They consist of three sonatas da chiesa, in four movements, and three partitas, in dance-form movements.

The set was completed by 1720, but was only published in 1802 by Nicolaus Simrock in Bonn. Even after publication, it was largely ignored until the celebrated violinist Josef Joachim started performing these works. Today, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas are an essential part of the violin repertoire, and is frequently performed and recorded.

Bach started composing these works around 1703, while at Weimar, and the set was completed by 1720, when Bach was a Kapellmeister in Köthen. He was almost certainly inspired by Johann Paul von Westhoff's partitas for solo violin, for he worked alongside Westhoff at Weimar, and the older composer's pieces share some stylistic similarities to Bach's. Solo violin repertoire was actively growing at the time: Heinrich Ignaz Biber's celebrated solo passacaglia appeared c.1676, Westhoff's collections of solo violin music were published in 1682 and 1696, Johann Joseph Vilsmayr's Artificiosus Concentus pro Camera in 1715, and finally, Johann Georg Pisendel's solo violin sonata was composed around 1716. The tradition of writing for solo violin did not die after Bach, either; Georg Philipp Telemann published 12 Fantasias for solo violin in 1735.

The tradition of polyphonic violin writing was already well-developed in Germany, particularly by Biber, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, and the composers of the so-called Dresden school - Johann Jakob Walther and Westhoff. Bach's Weimar and Köthen periods were particularly suitable times for composition of secular music, for he worked as court musician. Bach's cello and orchestral suites date from the Köthen period, as well as the famous Brandenburg concertos and many other well-known collections of instrumental music.

It is not known whether Bach's works were perfromed during his lifetime, or, if they were, who was the performer. Johann Georg Pisendel and Jean-Baptiste Volumier, both talented violinists in the Dresden court, have been suggested as possible performers, as was Joseph Speiss, leader of the orchestra in Köthen. Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, who would later became part of the Bach family circle in Leipzig, also became a likely candidate. Bach himself also possibly gave the first performance. According to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, "in his youth, and until the approach of old age, he played the violin cleanly and powerfully".


CD content

Sonata for solo violin No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
with Peter Holman, Elizabeth Wallfisch

Partita for solo violin No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
with Elizabeth Wallfisch

Sonata for solo violin No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
with Elizabeth Wallfisch

Partita for solo violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
with Elizabeth Wallfisch

Sonata for solo violin No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
with Elizabeth Wallfisch

Partita for solo violin No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
with Elizabeth Wallfisch

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