Johann Sebastian Bach

Sonatas and Partitas

A new critical edition of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin - possibly the very pinnacle of the whole repertoire for violin -, by violinist Fulvio Luciani. The edition is based on the autograph and is equipped with an apparatus of critical notes: they indicate problems with the reading of the original source, suggest possible new solutions, alternative to the widely accepted ones, and retrace the history of harmonic perception, as evidenced by the changes the composition went through across all its historical editions. The curator provides indications (clearly distinguishable from the original source) for the performance, the bowings specifically. They are suggestions founded in the observation of the technical apparatus pictured by Bach in his genius: a hand technique closer to a pianist's than a traditional violinist's; a mechanism we could call pioneering to this day.