Intellect and musicianship in perfect accord with glorious results
The Strad Issue: October 2025
Description: Intellect and musicianship in perfect accord with glorious results
Musicians: Isabelle Faust (violin) Kristin von der Goltz (cello) Kristian Bezuidenhout (harpsichord)
Works: Bach: Sonatas for violin and continuo: BWV1019, 1021, 1023, 1024, 1026, 1029
Catalogue number: HARMONIA MUNDI HMM902698
From the list of assorted BWV numbers, you may deduce that this is not the standard set of accompanied sonatas (BWV1014–19) which still unjustly plays second fiddle to the Solo Sonatas and Partitas. In fact Bach reworked BWV1019 more than once; the version here opens with a gently ruminative Cantabile that sets Isabelle Faust as first among equals with her admirable continuo partners.
Playing on a 2019 copy (by Stephan von Baehr) of the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ Stradivari which has been associated with her for many years now, Faust brings to this music her distinctively honeyed tone, even when senza vibrato, delicately chiselled phrasing and strong melodic profile.
And if that makes Bach sound like Roman statuary – well, why not? What a broad and noble countenance the opening Adagio of the C minor Sonata BWV1024 wears here, and then the following Presto pursues its argument with the knotty intelligence of a Ciceronian speech.
The authorship of BWV1024 is contested, but Faust’s performance places it on the same high pedestal as an undisputed masterpiece such as the G minor Sonata BWV1029, customarily encountered on viola da gamba.
How far we have come in the half century since ‘period’ violinists were diligently plodding and sawing their way through this music. Compared to Jaap ter Linden on the Musica Antiqua Köln set of Bach’s chamber music – once an invaluable stand-by – Faust could be playing an entirely different piece.
And a much better one: more engaged in dialogue, more searching in expression, more fully Bachian. The whole album is a delight from start to finish.
PETER QUANTRILL
No comments yet