Bach - Sonate e Partite (II)

J.S. Bach, Sonate e Partite: una storia biblica?
Partita n. 2 in re minore per violino BWV 1004, “La Passione”
Sonata n. 3 in do maggiore per violino BWV 1005, “Resurrezione”
Partita n. 3 in mi maggiore per violino BWV 1006, “Mondo Celeste”

Bach’s absolute musical gem for violin solo, the Sonate e Partite, will be played at the Festival this year in an evocative version by  Mario Brunello on the violoncello piccolo. The whole series is scheduled over two evenings in the church of the Eremo di Santa Caterina del Sasso, high in the cliff at Leggiuno. This is one of the Festival’s most enchanting sites and Brunello has already played the Suite per violoncello solo there, in 2002.
In recent years Brunello has performed with his precious Maggini, a four-stringed violoncello piccolo. This instrument, widely used in the Baroque period, is tuned like a violin (E, A, D, G) but an octave lower, so it still has a somewhat darker voice, like the cello. It was this that led Brunello to explore the gems in the violin repertoire of Bach, Vivaldi, Tartini and their contemporaries. He comments that ‘you can hardly perceive the harmonies in the chords, in cascades of notes, in the fugues for three or four voices, and the monumental Ciaccona. This language and musical architecture do not exist for the cello. The violoncello piccolo has given me the means to discover all those magnificent works, extending my own repertoire.’