Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Sonate pour violon n° 1 en sol mineur, BWV 1001
Sonate pour violon n° 2 en la mineur, BWV 1003
Sonate pour violon n° 3 en do majeur, BWV 1005
Partita pour violon n° 1 en ré mineur, BWV 1002
Partita pour violon n° 2 en ré mineur, BWV 1004
Partita pour violon n° 3 en mi majeur, BWV 1006

Linus Roth, violon

Peu connu chez nous, Linus Roth est un violoniste allemand qui mène une carrière internationale pratiquant aussi bien le concert avec orchestre que la musique de chambre tout en enseignant au Léopold Mozart Centre d’Ausburg. Il a notoirement enregistré l'intégrale des œuvres pour violon de Weinberg. Tout en poursuivant à mi-chemin l'écoute de ce disque consacré aux Sonates et Partitas de Bach, on reste dubitatif. Roth les a enregistrés durant le confinement et a pieusement travaillé les partitions. Dans le cas des Partitas, le tactus (impossible il est vrai) est bien souvent pris en défaut. Ensuite des phrasés pas toujours fluides et un agogique qui parfois se délite. Les mouvements d'entrée en font les frais (Allemandes des Partitas) comme si le violoniste devait se chauffer pour obtenir le bon tempo et la bonne sonorité. Chaque séquence se décline ensuite comme une gamme arithmétique. L'interprète se montre plus à l'aise dans les tempi enlevés voire rapides des Doubles et Courantes. Les Sarabandes sont même jouées ici avec un certain lyrisme. Les Sonates bénéficient d'un geste plus large, laissant un espace davantage ouvert (Préludes et Adagio) pour l'exécution des fugues. Roth semble enfin respirer avec son instrument (Le Dancla Stradivarius) et l'on découvre alors un potentiel de virtuosité et d'amour qui faisait défaut jusqu'à alors. (Jérôme Angouillant)

The cycle of six solo Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach is arguably one of the most powerful and most important compositions in musical history. These works have been with Linus Roth since he was nine years old, when he first learned the Gigue from the E major Partita, moving on by the age of twelve to the first Fugue in G minor to tackling at fifteen the Ciaconna, which represents a cosmos in its own right. By seventeen, Roth had finally learned the entire oeuvre for the first time and since then he is fortunate to have been able to grow as a musician through the constant and welcome challenge of interpreting these remarkable works. Bach did not write ‘Six Solos’ on the cover of the score, but instead wrote ‘Sei Solo’ in Italian, which can have two meanings: the word ‘Sei‘ can be translated both as the number six and also as ‘You are’. ‘You are alone’ - Bach is unlikely to have left something so important to chance or to be playing a simple word game. This announcement – if it is even to be seen as a reminder from the composer to the performer - must be taken seriously and Linus has always viewed it as an invitation to interpret the music as freely as the musical text allows, which for him became a guiding principle in his quest for his own interpretation. This recording was made during lockdown, in which all of our lives have had to be reduced to a minimum in almost every area. The chance to renew the intense preoccupation with this miraculous music in preparation for the recording was a huge privilege as it allowed Linus an escape into a spiritual freedom which helped me greatly on a personal level at this time. Not only did Roth's teachers and the interpretations of great violinists have a huge influence on how he plays Bach, but also his preoccupation with the original text and with what is known as ‘historically informed performance practice’, in particular the experience of playing with the type of convex Baroque bow that was used in Bach’s time. Due to its bend and the different weight distribution, it has a different nature to the concave curved bow used today, which leads to a slight decrescendo phrasing where several notes are slurred together towards the tip of the bow. In Linus' opinion, the modern bow suits the modern violin better and enables a wider range of sounds, which is why he tries to translate these Baroque-style experiences to the modern bow. While the slurs and other details in the musical text were not always adhered to in years gone by, further meticulous examinations of the text have resulted in music editions that faithfully reproduce all the details of Bach’s handwriting, yielding fascinating results. In Bach’s hands, the Partita, a series of linked dance movements, is transformed from music with the specific purpose of entertainment into art music.