On Palm Sunday, April 5, 2020, the exceptional violinist plays Johann Sebastian Bach's Sonata No.3 in C major for Solo Violin, BWV 1005, in the empty St Thomas Church in Leipzig. In these unusual and challenging times, her Bach interpretation exudes calm and confidence.
"In her concentration, the violinist acts like a medium through which this unique music reaches us today", says the NZZ about Isabelle Faust's interpretation of the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Johann Sebastian Bach. "What Faust is searching for on the inside is [...] a truthfulness that results not only from the study of passed down conceptions of aesthetics, but also from today's attitude towards life. Such a positioning between the fronts makes Faust's violin playing as interesting as it is unique."
Source: accentus.com
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Bach had an easy solution for the problem of combining the violin with the keyboard: he simply dispensed with the keyboard and wrote six sonatas and partitas (three of each) for violin alone. He did the same for the cello with six suites for that instrument without accompaniment.
All 12 works were composed during the time he was conductor of the court orchestra at Anhalt-Cöthen, where his patron, young Prince Leopold, was a skilled musician. Bach himself was a violinist of no small attainment, yet it seems likely that the solo cello and violin pieces were written, around 1720, for Leopold – high tribute indeed to the Prince for his musical taste and, if he could negotiate the demonic pieces, for his performing ability. For these bold works are difficult in ways that most other virtuosic string pieces are not: they demand not only unfaltering facility in matters of digital and rhythmic dexterity and preciseness of pitch, particularly in the multiple stoppings, but also the keenest musical insights and inner-ear sensitivity to implied polyphonic and harmonic textures. In short, they strip a performer naked, as it were, forcing the executant to recreate incredibly diverse Bachian worlds with only a wooden box, four lengths of string, and a bow.
Of the six violin works, the present one stands alone on a lofty summit, and this by virtue of the towering Chaconne that is its final movement. Preceding this finale are four dance movements that comprise the traditional Baroque suite: allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue. Although they are splendid examples of their genre, they end by being an introduction to the monumental Chaconne, which is a set of more than 60 variations on a simple bass theme.
In a lengthy description of the Chaconne, the great Bach scholar Philipp Spitta ends with these memorable words, "This Chaconne is a triumph of spirit over matter such as even Bach never repeated in a more brilliant manner". Enough said.
Source: Orrin Howard (laphil.com)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
♪ Sonata No.3 in C major for Solo Violin, BWV 1005 (1720)
♪ Sonata No.3 in C major for Solo Violin, BWV 1005 (1720)
i. Adagio [00:17]*
ii. Fuga. Alla breve [05:44]
iii. Largo [16:23]
iv. Allegro assai [19:38]
Isabelle Faust, violin
St Thomas Church Leipzig, April 5, 2020
St Thomas Church Leipzig, April 5, 2020
(HD 1080p)
* Start time of each movement
The German violinist Isabelle Faust (b. 1972, Esslingen, Baden-Württemberg) received her first violin lessons at the age of 5. Her father, then a 31 year old secondary school teacher, decided to learn the violin. He took his young daughter along: the father's talent was not especially stellar, but his infant daughter was able to learn the technical fundamentals of violin playing correctly and at an unusually early age, quickly herself becoming the star pupil. Shortly after that her brother also began to take lessons and when Isabelle was 11 the parents created a family string quartet for which several masterclasses were later organised with some of the leading string players of the time. The early start was, for both the children, the basis for musical careers; Boris Faust has become a viola professional.
By the time she was in her teens, she studied with Christoph Poppen and Dénes Zsigmondy. After winning the Paganini Competition, and keen to broaden her experience, she moved in 1996 to Paris where she lived for the next 9 years. She began entering major international competitions and in 1987 won the International Leopold Mozart Competition of Augsberg (Leopold Mozart's hometown). Although she was the youngest entrant, she won the First Prize. In 1990, the City of Rovigo granted her its Premio Quadrivio Prize. In 1993, she entered the Paganini Competition of Genoa and took First Prize, becoming the first German violinist ever to win it. busy concert career ensued.
It was in France that her first CD appeared, featuring music by Béla Bartók. Isabelle Faust attracted plaudits as an interpreter of Gabriel Fauré. Faust later commented ruefully that it probably did no harm to her career that, because of her French first name, many French listeners assumed she was French. It was also in France that she met her husband.
Isabelle Faust is one of the most impressive violinists of the generation that emerged in the 1990's. She is known for exceptional technique and strong interpretive instincts. She captivates her listeners through her insightful and faithful interpretations, based on a thorough knowledge of the historical context of the works as well as her attention to current scholarship. She has performed as guest soloist with most of the world's major orchestras., including the Philharmoniker Hamburg under Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Berliner Philharmoniker, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester-Berlin, Münchener Kammerorchester, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Freiburger Barockorchester, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Hannover, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchester, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Prague Philharmonia, Weiner-Szász Chamber Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo. She made her USA debut in 1995 with the Utah Symphony Orchestra under Joseph Silverstein. 2016 marks her first year as Artistic Partner with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Over the course of her career,she has regularly performed or recorded with world-renowned conductors including John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Daniel Harding, Bernard Haitink and Andris Nelsons. During recent years Isabelle Faust developed a close relationship with the late Claudio Abbado and performed and recorded under his baton.
Isabelle Faust performs a wide-ranging repertoire, from J.S. Bach all the way through to contemporary composers such as Ligeti, Lachenmann and Widmann. To highlight this versatility, in addition to her mastery of the great symphonic violin concertos, she also performs works such as György Kurtág's Kafka Fragments with the soprano Anna Prohaska, and Schubert’s Octet on historical instruments. She is a proponent of new music and has given world premieres of works by, among others, Olivier Messiaen, Werner Egk, and Jörg Widmann. She will premiere several new works for violin and orchestra during the upcoming seasons, including concerti by the composers Ondrej Adamek, Marco Stroppa, Oscar Strasnoy and Beat Furrer.
Isabelle Faust is also an avid recitalist and chamber musician and has performed in Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Paris, Bonn, Bratislava, Brussels, Zürich, Milan, Tokyo, London, and Osaka and locations in the United States and Israel. Among her recital partners have been Clemens Hagen, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Bruno Canino, Steven Isserlis, Bruno Giuranna, Boris Pergamenschikov, and Joseph Silverstein. One of her regular partners – both in performance and in recordings – is pianist Alexander Melnikov.
Isabelle Faust has appeared at several major music festivals, including the Lockenhaus, Bad Kissingen, Berlin, Delft, Colmar, Schleswig-Holstein, the Rheingau Music Festival of Wiesbaden, Schwetzingen, Lyon, Sarasota (Florida), and Lanaudière Canada.
In 2004 Isabelle Faust was appointed Professor of violin at the Berlin University of the Arts. She lives in Berlin and is the mother of a teenage son. Since 1996, she has performed on the "Sleeping Beauty" Stradivarius violin of 1704, on loan from Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. She has also performed with Baroque-style violins and bows.
Isabelle Faust made her debut album in 1997, playing the Béla Bartók Solo Violin Sonata and Sonata No.1 for Violin and Piano, with Ewa Kupiec, on the Harmonia Mundi label. This recording won the Gramophone Award of that year for "Young Artist of the Year", citing her "combination of musical intuition and technical finesse. Harmonia Mundi followed that success by engaging her to record other Béla Bartók violin music, including the Second Violin and Piano Sonata. She recorded the complete Haydn Violin Concertos on the PAN Classics label with the Münchener Kammerorchester conducted by Christoph Poppen (her former teacher), and planned to record the complete violin sonatas of Robert Schumann. In addition to the above mentioned above and recordings listed below under "Awards and Prizes", she has recorded works of Antonín Dvořák, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms (including the Violin Concerto), Alban Berg, Bohuslav Martinů, André Jolivet and others. JameR. Oestreich from The New York Times counted her recording of W.A. Mozart's violin concertos among the best recordings of 2016. She has recorded many discs for harmonia mundi with her recital partner Alexander Melnikov. These include their latest album with the Johannes Brahms' Sonatas for violin and piano, as well as Robert Schumann’s piano trios. Both, her recording of W.A. Mozart violin concerti with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini, as well as J.S. Bach’s harpsichord sonatas with Kristian Bezuidenhout will be released in 2016-2018.
Source: bach-cantatas.com
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See also
See also
Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita No.2 in D minor for Solo Violin, BWV 1004 – Isabelle Faust (HD 1080p)
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