Change the order in which you play JS Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin and you change the story they’re telling. Splitting these six works into two intense concerts on consecutive nights, Leonidas Kavakos was to have started with the Partita No 3; instead, he swapped it for the A minor Sonata No 2, a more low-key opening which meant that when the E major explosion that begins the Partita No 3 did arrive, it felt like the sun coming out. After the interval, the C major Sonata No 3 reinforced the major-key positivity.
Alone in the spotlight in the centre of the Barbican Hall’s stage, Kavakos played with a buoyancy of bow and an awareness of the impact of small changes in timbre that nodded respectfully to the historically informed side of performance practice, yet with a modern warmth and weight of sound. His speeds tended to be brisk. Early on, the faster movements betrayed a hint of impatience, with phrases losing a little of their shape in the rush. Once past the shimmering, shifting harmonies of the Preludio of the E major Partita he found a slightly steadier groove, although the music still danced irresistibly.
There’s an old-school sensibility to Kavakos’s playing, a sense that the violin is an instrument that should both beguile and impress us. But there was no ego or grandstanding on show here, no swaggering to a triumphant close at the end of particularly fiendish movements. Instead, Kavakos tended to dial things back and to let the final phrases float into the air. He used vibrato sparingly and added filigree decoration skilfully and enthusiastically: the ever-returning theme of the Gavotte of the E major Partita accumulated more embellishment with each return, and it was as if the melody were being handed another helium balloon every time.
As an encore we got the Bourrée from the Partita No 1, a teaser for the next concert – three minor-key works, with the massive chaconne that ends the Partita No 2 as the final destination. There will be plenty who will be keen to join Kavakos for the full journey.
• Kavakos Plays Bach: Part 2 is at the Barbican, London, on 3 May
