There are just so many recordings of J.S. Bach’s
great
Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin out there that this
kind of review becomes another conundrum. Which versions do we take
for comparison? and, having left out dozens of no doubt great recordings,
how is a fair assessment at all possible, even amongst the ones used
as a reference? Are there winners and losers, and if so, why? Does Gottfried
Schneider beat Rachel Podger on Channel Classics? Or
Julia
Fischer on Pentatone? Or
Itzhak
Perlman on EMI? Should we even see this as a competition?
Any real fan of this music is likely to have more than one version of
it on their shelves, and perhaps seeking an ‘ideal’ recording
is part of your collector’s quest. You can pick your own names
out of a hat and have a royally entertaining time seeking out nuances,
but in the end each recording has to stand on its own terms.
Gottfried Schneider is not exactly a household name but he has won plenty
of prizes, held high level appointments and is a keen and highly respected
performer of contemporary music. His own ‘Notes concerning the
Interpretation’ can be taken in a number of ways, including with
a pinch of salt. Schneider claims this recording wasn’t “intended
for publication, but rather emerged out of the need to sonically fix
Bach’s unique violin cycle - with which one had occupied oneself
on a daily basis for almost half a century… in a sonic snapshot,
so to speak, knowing full well that nothing final or exemplary would
come of it.” He concludes, “If this recording is indeed
made available to the public, its aim is to invite an active and interested
listener on this adventure; if possible, to share this cosmos with him
or her.” Hmmm. Well, the active and interested listener will hopefully
have long perceived that any recording is always a snapshot, no matter
what grand intentions or otherwise might be had from such a project.
We might take the ‘not intended for publication’ declaration
as an attempt to disarm critics, but if we also take as a given that
no musical performance is really complete without an audience, this
is the juncture at which I would apply my pinch of seasoning.
In the end, there is no real need for this kind of
Bescheidenheit,
as both recording and performance of these Bach masterpieces is rather
good. There are one or two moments where one could wish for a little
more distinctiveness in the playing, a couple of patches where intonation
in the double-stopping might have been a touch more accurate, but with
a fine recording and well considered and expert performances this is
a set which can stand on its own two feet without our having to carry
the notion that it has been raised from obscurity, where it might forever
have languished in the back of the artist’s scrapbook.
Having listened with rather casual pleasure for a couple of sessions
to a new dose of the
Sonaten und Partiten I invariably dive for
the most demanding heart of the matter, the
Ciaconna final movement
of the
Partita No.2 in D minor BWV 1004. This again is given
a masterful performance by Schneider. What I miss a little is the change
in character between contrapuntal lines you have with some players,
giving the upper melodic line a more distinct colour when in conversation
against the bass or harmony notes. There are of course moments where
the technical demands of the music make this kind of subtlety as good
as impossible, but Schneider’s playing is more horizontal than
many in this regard. As an alternative example, Julia Fischer’s
approach guides the ear more, taking it along the dual paths of melody
and counterpoint both real and imagined. Schneider is capable of generating
electric excitement in the faster passages, and his shading of the tone
of his instrument in the different ‘rooms’ through which
Bach takes us is compelling. He takes a relatively direct approach however,
driving on harder where some players slow or even virtually stop for
moments of reflection. This results in a compact timing of 13:58, compared
to, say, Itzhak Perlman’s by no means excessive 15:48. Perlman
is still hard to beat in this and any other movement of these works,
and I prefer his way of lifting away the pressure of this incredibly
intense piece from time to time, giving the brain a chance to regroup.
Would Wolfgang Schneider’s
Sonatas and Partitas be my first
choice for a recording? No, but neither would I be too dismayed if I
found myself on a desert island with his as the only version on my solar
powered music pod thing. Schneider engages with Bach’s music with
integrity and a good proportion of passion versus the cerebral. If I
were to make a blanket criticism it would be a certain lack of contrast,
both within movements as well as in the change of character from one
to the next. There
is contrast, but just not quite as much as
can be found elsewhere. With legendary players such as Perlman and
Arthur
Grumiaux to be had with the greatest of ease, this set would not
be the one I would be pushing at you in the shop as a first-time Bach
adventurer. The ‘snapshot’ recording is very good indeed,
the violin sound captured well in a spacious but not overly resonant
acoustic. The booklet notes are an intriguing but somewhat esoteric
essay on the essentially unplayable nature of Bach’s writing for
the solo violin - an appropriate parallel to the virtual impossibility
of reviewing it.
Dominy Clements 
