Quasi-biblical texts for classical violinists, J S Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (1720) are adored and played by professional and amateur musicians around the world. Less frequently explored, though no less interesting, are Six Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard composed shortly after their more famous cousins (1720-1723), towards the end of Bach’s period as Kapellmeister at Köthen, and immediately before his appointment to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.
Written in Trio Sonata form, with keyboard providing not only basso continuo but also a duetting melodic line, these sonatas treat violin and keyboard as equals, and thus foreshadow the development of duo sonatas by Mozart and Beethoven, as well compositions of the romantic and modern periods by César Franck, Max Reger, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
In this excerpt of their three-part series ‘Bach and Beyond’, Chloë Hanslip and Danny Driver explore two of Bach’s Six Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard alongside works by Dmitri Shostakovich, for whom J S Bach was a particularly important inspiration.
J S Bach Sonata for Violin & Keyboard no 2 in A major BWV1015
Shostakovich Preludes Op 34 (selection) arranged Tzyganov
J S Bach Sonata for Violin & Keyboard no 3 in E major BWV1016
Shostakovich Violin Sonata Op 134
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