Above: Artistic Director of Bach Akademie Australia, Madeleine Easton, was the violinist for this concert series of  solo Bach sonatas and partitas. Image: supplied.

Bach Akademie Australia has reached the middle of 2023 with a concert series and musicological share-project titled: A Universe of One – The Solo Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Senza Basso of Bach. This was a special series of four concerts featuring the solo sonatas and partitas for violin by Bach, which must be seen as a significant contribution to the current Sydney concert and music scene.

Over four consecutive days this research, solo performance and chamber music project struck many chords in quasi music festival mode. The complete solo Bach violin works plus an ensemble work from one of his contemporaries each programme were heard across the four concerts. .

This powerhouse playing filled the reverberant acoustic of the Paddington Uniting Church in daily concerts from 15-18 June 2023.
 

Internationally experienced violinist and Artistic Director of the Bach Akademie, Madeleine Easton presented Bach’s solo violin works-the three solo sonatas and three partitas with enthusiasm and individuality.

The concert series and programming spread the solo sonatas and partitas out over four concerts, not in chronological order. Easton repeated some of the solo works on different days. This offered lovers of Bach and Baroque music great choice and nicely balanced programmes which were always a substantial listening experience.

I had the chance to listen to Concert 3 on Saturday night, June 17. The central chamber work was an engaging Trio Sonata Op 4 No 3 in D minor by Leclair. This piece in the programme was a good contrast to the solo Bach, giving a nice snapshot of the musical world around JS Bach.

The ensemble layers were expertly intertwined, with gestures nicely on point as the group voice and its constituent tone colours travelled brightly through the church acoustic.

For the Leclair trio somata, Madeleine  Easton was joined by fellow Early Music performance experts John Ma (violin), Anthea Cottee (cello) and Nathan Cox (harpsichord). This was a lush interlude from the density of Bach solo violin timbre.

Above: violinist and Artistic Director of Bach Akademie Australia, Madeleine Easton

Concert 3 began with a Bach Sonata and ended with a Partita, as was the fashion through this ‘Violin Senza Basso’ festival.

This time it was the turn of some hefty and well-known works. Sonata No 3 in C major BWV 1005 began the night, with its meditative, slowly changing Adagio beautifully executed.

The fiendish Fuga to follow featured thoughtful voice leading and layering of the keyboard-like textures on the solo violin. There was rich colouring here across registers and depth of sounds varied across the instrument. Low register voice tracing was especially clear here and the fugal structures were breathtakingly well preserved in the playing.

Tempo choices for this sonata’s faster movements as well as the final work, Partita No 3 in E major BWV 1006 a work which has the largest number of movements amongst the three partitas.

The dance movements were contrasted well by this violinist, with effective overall characters explored. In this acoustic and for such a well-known partita as this I could have easily listened to the swoop of complex filigree and intersecting lines at a slower tempo for many movements.

In this way, the layered utterances and dance vibes such as the Gavotte en rondeau could have enjoyed even greater space. There amongst the elegance, clarity of Bach’s relentless changes in shape and time would have been a little more deliberate.

Some more breath and commas in between motifs and melodic careering as the seven movements leapt into the reverberant space would have allowed us more leisurely time with this classic solo work live.

The Partita No 3 was also to be heard the next night in the festival. As detailed in the amazingly thorough programme notes by Easton, violinists undergo constant evolution in choices along the preparation and performance of these works through their lives.

In this way choices relating to tempo, emphasis and character in the complex masterpieces are forever in flux. There was a chance then that some of the rendering of this Partita had more leisurely treatment then. Either way, the big play of this work had an impact on the enthusiastic festival crowd.

This Bach festival as a performance and repertoire-sharing event is undoubtedly a feather in the cap for accomplished violinist Madeleine Easton. Attending all four concerts must have been a wonderful immersion into Baroque masterworks.

Its preparation, production and souvenir programme plus the powerhouse playing is a beautifully attractive jewel in the crown of Bach Akademie Australia, continuing the group’s short but impressive history of milestone compositions by their target composer.

We crave this musicianship and thorough programme planning once again from Bach Akademie Australia to be crystallised in a box set recording soon.