J.S. Bach: Solo Violin Sonatas & Partitas

We Say...

Review by John Schaefer

Eugene Drucker is, along with Philip Setzer, one of the two violinists in the Emerson String Quartet, one of the world's gold-standard chamber ensembles. This in itself doesn't guarantee anything other than Drucker knowing how to play nicely with others, and a cynic might well ask if a recording like this doesn't represent someone used to playing second fiddle attempting to grab a little bit of the spotlight. But Drucker and Setzer, during their quarter-century-plus together, have always alternated the first and second violin chairs, so Drucker not only knows how to deliver the goods melodically, he also knows the importance of the internal voices in a piece of chamber music.

Good thing, too, because the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Unaccompanied Violin can be viewed as a sort of one-man chamber music. While some of the Sarabandes and Adagios are largely melodic inventions, the four strings of the violin offered Bach the chance to indulge in some notable contrapuntal exercises as well. (Check out the Fuga in Sonata #2, for example.) Drucker's performances are graceful, echoing the courtly dances that were in turn echoed in many of these works, but they also have that sense of inevitability and momentum that only happens with a violinist who has, in a manner of speaking, internalized the multiple voices that Bach speaks through.

Of course, a recording like this will stand or fall on the basis of the Chaconne (or Ciacconna, as it's listed here) at the end of the Partita #2. Not just a pinnacle of the solo string literature, this extraordinary work weaves melodies, both obvious and hidden, through several layers of voices which appear and disappear as the piece progresses. To make the piece sing is a challenge that will forever lure violinists, even after hundreds of others have recorded it. Drucker's nearly 16-minute reading is as clear as it is unhurried, and his recording stands tall as a result.