Noé Inui: Bach

The Strad Issue: November 2026

Description: A finely balanced performance makes its mark

Musicians: Noé Inui (violin)

Works: Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin BWV1001–06

Catalogue number: ARS 89003 (2 CDs)

This is certainly not the first recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin that sets out to – as the publicity blurb has it – ‘strike a balance between historically informed performance practice and a modern way of playing’ (which I take to mean a violin in modern set-up), but it’s one that achieves this aim very successfully.

Noé Inui’s ‘way of playing’ is clearly influenced by the HIP school, using low positions and open strings aplenty to clarify Bach’s real and implied polyphony, and applying vibrato selectively. In the booklet note, Inui names Henryk Szeryng’s recordings as an important influence in forming his Bachian interpretation, one that he nevertheless doesn’t attempt to copy. His generous use of agogics and rubato could hardly be more different from the older master’s austere style.

In the vast structures of the Chaconne and the three fugues, Inui differentiates well between rhythmic, dance-like episodes and almost rhapsodic-sounding interludes. The long semiquaver runs are shaped quite freely, with a degree of rubato that some might find excessive but which always works within the larger structure. Inui ensures we’re always conscious of the ground bass on which the Chaconne’s variations are based too.

Three- and four-part chords are broken in manifold ways (but never downwards), and sometimes very swiftly, much to the benefit of rhythmic shape. Inui’s added embellishments sound as if they were improvised on the spot. His use of inégal rhythms in the French-influenced E major Partita is perfectly judged, as are his subtly varied cadential trills throughout this engaging, lively recorded cycle.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE