Gidon Kremer first recorded Johann Sebastian Bach's three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin for Philips around 1980. This two-disc set is his return to the cycle a generation later, which he called the "Himalayas" of violin music. He presented it as a final statement on the music, and the result is a searching, very personal reading of the six works complete, BWV 1001-1006.
The two halves were recorded in places tied to Kremer's life. The partitas were made from 25 to 29 September 2001 in the Pfarrkirche St. Nikolaus at Lockenhaus in Austria, home since 1981 of the chamber music festival he founded. The sonatas followed from 10 to 15 March 2002 in Riga, his birthplace, in the Reformation Church according to ECM. Niels Foelster was the recording engineer, and Kremer plays a Guarneri del Gesù violin. The booklet carries two essays by Kremer himself, written for this release.
The six works alternate across the discs as Bach ordered them, each four-movement sonata with its fugue followed by a partita of dances. Tempos are mostly fast and the fortes raw, while soft passages are floated with quick, light bow strokes. The Ciaccona that closes the Partita No. 2 in D minor lasts fourteen minutes here and is the centre of the set, built on sharp contrasts of weight and colour. In the Partita No. 1 in B minor each dance is followed by its double, and the Presto double of the Corrente is driven hard. The Andante of the Sonata No. 2 in A minor sings over its steady bass, and the closing Partita No. 3 in E major ends in lighter dance movements.
In the New York Times, Jeremy Eichler called it "a superb account, bursting at once with piety toward the spirit of this music and sheer irreverence toward its execution." Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times heard playing that had "turned raw, deeply probing, ferociously honest." At MusicWeb International in January 2006, Zane Turner singled out the Chaconne as the crowning glory of the set and praised the recorded sound. Paul Driver in the Sunday Times called Kremer's handling of the Chaconne masterly.
This is the 2CD edition on ECM New Series, catalogue number ECM New Series 1926/27, first released on 24 October 2005.
