Thomas Zehetmair was only 21 when he recorded Bach’s solo violin sonatas and partitas for the first time, in 1982, for Teldec. Though he performed them using a modern violin and bow, Zehetmair was then a member of Concentus Musicus, Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s pioneering period instrument orchestra, and learning how to play this music on the kind of instrument that Bach would have known. That was the starting point for this new set, on which he uses different instruments and baroque bows for the two sets of pieces – one made in the South Tyrol in the late 17th century for the partitas, and his own Eberle violin dating from 1750 for the three sonatas.
With gut strings and playing without chin or shoulder rests, he is able to bring a huge range of tonal nuance and colour to these pieces, which is hauntingly caught by the resonant acoustic of the Tyrolean church in which the recordings were made three years ago. The two bows Zehetmair uses, he says, “could hardly be more different, in length, weight and sound formation”, and he creates sharply contrasted sound worlds for the two sets of works – bright, assertive and sharply defined for the sonatas, each of which includes a fugue, and something more subtly varied for the dance-movement sequences of the partitas.
The result is performances that avoid any sense of display or virtuosity for their own sake. Even in Zehetmair’s account of the great chaconne that ends the D minor Partita, it is the more reflective episodes, beautifully veiled and intimate, that one remembers, while in the sonatas the contrapuntal detail is perfectly transparent, without ever being over-articulated. Some may prefer a more demonstrative approach to these perpetually fascinating pieces, but Zehetmair’s thoughtfulness is hugely rewarding in its own right.
This week’s other picks
Palazzetto Bru Zane’s latest foray into the hinterland of French Romanticism is a three disc introduction to the music of Fernand de La Tombelle (1854-1928).
An organist by profession, he was a significant, connected figure in Parisian musical life in the last quarter of the 19th century, who, together with Vincent D’Indy, was one of the founders of the influential La Schola Cantorum.
One disc here contains orchestral works played by the Brussels Philharmonic under Hervé Niquet, while the others mix chamber and vocal music. If La Tombelle’s style is generic, indebted to Massenet and Saint-Saëns especially, with echoes of César Franck and Grieg, his works do have a fastidious, workman-like clarity about them, and the set is as beautifully presented and thoroughly documented as anyone could want.
