Bach's Unaccompanied Violin Sonata & Partita


- Natural breathing which gives slander to music -

How the music breaths of its own? The performance of a Baroque violinist Hélène Schmitt allowed us to understand it in detail. It was her first visit to Japan as a soloist from France. She performed a total of six works including Bach's Unaccompanied Violin Sonata & Partita. The programme was split between two nights and she satisfied us by the depth of vitality of those works. (June 3 and 4 at Tokyo Hakuju Hall)

Her performance clearly showed us that the life of music is also born from a breathing. Following her natural manner of breathing, her bowing gave a fundamental support to her phrasing as well as harmony. She never played the music at one burst without let it breath. Time to time, I was surprised to hear her laud vocalizations - sigh and intake of breath - along with the music. But It must have been a manifestation of the unification of her breathing and bowing.

While overall tempo was rather slow, because of the subtle application of the broad agogics, there was no sense of stagnation. With the first music of the first day, Sonata No.1, she presented pianissimo which made us feel like as if we were looking into her own mind. Eloquent sounds were displayed in their natural state even without a fear of becoming husky once in a while. As the sonority wore no "cosmetics", it sank into our ears without reserve. The following Partita felt as if Bach himself was composing at the site. He was hesitatingly or smoothly moving his pen or perhaps contemplating on his score. The last number on the last day was Chaconne and the work itself was drawing a deep breath. Through this, the profound view of the world was conveyed to us in a casual manner as if it was a simply a precious thing in our daily life without any exaggerated gesture.

There are many younger musicians in our days who have a matchless technique. Nevertheless, when the development of performing technique becomes an end in itself, the performance would walk away from the natural flow of the music and even destroy the music. Hélène Schmitt made us realize this fact though her performance which could be said to bestowed us with a crucial awareness of the issues in our music world.

VIEW ARTICLE IN JAPANESE HERE

Special thanks to :

  • Kazuhiko OGAWA, copy of japanese article
  • Emiko HALL, translation