I’m perfectly happy to play and teach the Sonatas and Partitas with my ‘modern’ violin, but for this recording I opted for my eighteenth-century ‘Baroque’ violin, even if this instrument and its gut strings are somewhat harder and more awkward to play. But the sound of the gut strings and above all of the light attack of my Baroque bow (based on a model of around 1730) is in my opinion still more exquisite, more eloquent and less smooth than an entirely modern violin sound. An interesting fact that has been a source of inspiration to me is that some elements of ‘our’ solo works for violin by Bach also exist in versions for other instruments with a quite different tonal quality and thus different interpretative possibilities: the Partita in E major transcribed for lute (BWV 1006a), the Preludio of the Partita in E major arranged for organ and orchestra (Cantatas BWV 120/4 and 29/1), the G minor Fuga transcribed for organ or lute (BWV 539 / BWV 1000), while there are arrangements for harpsichord with fascinatingly enriched harmonies of the Sonata in A minor (as the Partita BWV 964) and the Adagio from the C major Sonata (BWV 968). Whether in his sacred output or in the wordless music of his great instrumental works, Johann Sebastian Bach instils a wonderful balance in me and carries me far above earthly difficulties. Christine Busch – Translation: Charles Johnston
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