Search - Johann Sebastian Bach :: Bach:Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, Vol. 1

Van Dael Has Guts!

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 02/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Any violinist who attempts these solo sonatas, Bach's most abstract "pure" music compositions, needs guts. There's a pun involved in that statement. By 'guts', I do mean courage, but I also mean gut strings rather than the metal strings used on modern violins. The difference is clearer on recordings of these Bach pieces than anywhere else. The gut strings are the reason why van Dael's tone is so much richer and more vocal than Milstein's or Lubotsky's. The gut strings also allow van Dael to achieve remarkable effects of harshness and suavity, remarkable dynamics, etc.

Lucy van Dael has less of a fan-club following than Manze or Goebel, but she is a wonderful musician, more an interpreter than a mere virtuoso. Her special virtues are most apparent on this recording and on her performance of Corelli's Opus 5 violin sonatas. Both CDs are favorites of mine."

Bach as music

Holofernes | Brookline, MA, USA | 02/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the most sheerly musical recording of these pieces I've ever heard. By contrast, the great violinists who have recorded them can sound (by turns) mechanical, pedestrian or perfunctory. Van Dael's playing has an improvisatory quality alien to the usual suspects in this music. Her phrasing, even compared to a Milstein, is vastly superior. Only occasional intrusive breatihng noises prevent this recording from being perfection."