By Miranda Wilson | From the July-August 2024 issue of Strings Magazine
Having waited until relatively late in his career to record Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, superstar violinist Leonidas Kavakos has now released a much-anticipated album of Bach’s solo violin concertos. Alongside the Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041, and the E major, BWV 1042, are the so-called “lost violin concertos” of Bach (that is, the Neue Bach Ausgabe arrangements of the harpsichord concertos, BWV 1052 and 1056), plus an “encore” of the famous Air from Orchestral Suite No. 2, BWV 1068.
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Kavakos’ big, bold tone and almost unbelievable precision of articulation make his Bach interpretation compelling, and his measured phrasing of Bach’s spun-out chord progressions keep the listener on the edge of their seat, yearning for the resolution of dissonances.
As is his usual practice, Kavakos performs on his 1734 “Willemotte” Stradivarius violin, and for this recording chose a Tourte-style bow in preference to a Baroque one. There are plenty of nods to historically informed performance practices, however, including A=415Hz tuning and the accompaniment of the small, one-on-a-part ApollΩn Ensemble.
All the performers on the album are exceptional, but comparison with the wealth of existing period-instrument performances seems inevitable. It would be hard to best the thrilling timbral contrasts in Alice Harnoncourt’s recording, for example, or the gorgeously resonant tone of Rachel Podger’s. Next to the rhetorical poetry of Shunske Sato’s ornamentation, Kavakos’ sometimes seems unwarranted in melodic lines that are already highly decorated. In contrast with the robust tempos of the outer movements, the slower middle movements of the A minor and especially the E major concerto go at slightly ponderous speeds. The concluding Air, by contrast, flows more easily. Here Kavakos and the ApollΩn Ensemble play with touching sympathy, bringing a more inward and intimate expression to their chamber music.
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