Shaun Lee Chen Baroque Violin

PROGRAM NOTES

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

SONATA NO. 1 IN G MINOR, BWV 1001
Adagio

More than 300 years since their first publication, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin continue to challenge violinists technically and musically, acting as a standard of excellence by which they gauge themselves both on and off the stage. One of Bach’s first great proponents (also his first biographer), Johann Nikolaus Forkel, was early to recognise this excellence but not alone in holding the collection in the highest regard:

For many years, the six violin solos were universally considered by the greatest performers on the violin as the best means to make an ambitious student a perfect master of his instrument.
JOHANN NIKOLAUS FORKEL, 1802

Almost the same age as CPE Bach’s son Johann Sebastian Bach (the painter), Forkel shared a special relationship with Carl Philipp Emanuel, with whom he corresponded regularly even beyond biographical matters. It is thanks to their correspondence (coupled with other direct correspondence Forkel had with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach), that many details of JS Bach’s life and influence as a teacher have survived.

Although they were probably not written for purely didactic purposes, the dual pedagogic and artistic challenge of learning, mastering, and shaping Bach’s masterworks for solo violin is perhaps what sets them apart. By way of their complicated rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic illusions, all six sonatas and partitas offer a sublime and personally gratifying musical reward to performer and listener alike.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

Akin to the famous Prelude in C major (BWV 846) from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, this elegant song-like Adagio acts as a precursor for things to come; not only is it the opening movement for the G minor sonata, but it is also an opener for the entire collection of violin sonatas and partitas. Despite Bach’s intimidating-looking and thoroughly written-out ornamentation (see our From the Manuscript section), the simplicity of the melodic line and straightforward A-B-A structure affords space for the best violinists to express themselves, and here Shaun Lee-Chen showcases an incredible breadth of artistic nuance in his playing. In particular, Shaun relishes in JS Bach’s subtle variations between the opening 8-bar section and its reprise in C minor from bar 14:

The Adagio from Sonata No. 1 in G minor is often viewed as a written-out fantasia for solo violin. The movement is built on a harmonic frame that is embellished by melodious improvisatory passages that take us on a journey one chord to another. Serving as kind of prelude to the fugue that follows it, I view the Adagio as a grand and somewhat sombre opener.
SHAUN LEE-CHEN

Program Notes: Hugh Ronzani, 2023
Image Credit: Steven Godbee, 2020