# Bach's Partitas



## Oliver

I'm getting into these at the moment, share your favourite partitas/movements - I'm interested.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde




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## HarpsichordConcerto

They are all lovely in their own little ways. My first complete recording on CD of the six partitas were those played by Trevor Pinnock on a harpsichord. Still one of the finest interpretations around, me think.

JS Bach at his finest.


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## Webernite

You mean violin or harpsichord?


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## NightHawk

My Bach favorites in the solo string rep:

I really love all this literature, but I suppose these might be my favorites today 

violin - Partita No. 2 in d minor - finishes with the famous _Ciaccona_ or _Chaconne_.
violin - Solo Sonata No. 1 in g minor - all

cello - Suite No. 1 in G - all
cello - Suite No. 3 in C - all, but particularly the Prelude


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## Head_case

Lots of fondness for the Bach flute Partita, particularly played properly (that is - on a baroque traverso, and not some tinny high pitched tin can flute like Rampal or Pahud. The poignancy of the baroque traverso in its solo flute version requires intense listening:






Jed Wentz's interpretation is very left of the centre: just incredible. His performance at the Lufthansa Concert was rivetting.

As for which movement = favourite. That's hard ...I like the completeness of the four movements as a whole.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde




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## Guest

^ I like that Suite/Partita, too, as well as the 2nd VIolin Partita BWV 1004 and the Keyboard Partita No. 6 BWV 830. No.2 BWV 826 is pretty cool, too.


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## belfastboy

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


>


Very Beautiful


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## belfastboy

This is magical, beautiful - why have I not come across this before!?!

@Lots of fondness for the Bach flute Partita, particularly played properly (that is - on a baroque traverso, and not some tinny high pitched tin can flute like Rampal or Pahud. The poignancy of the baroque traverso in its solo flute version requires intense listening:


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

My favourite in the solo string repertoire:

Violin: partita in d minor
Cello: suite no. 5 in c minor
Lute: suite no. 3 in c minor (sometimes performed in a minor when played on a six string guitar)


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## belfastboy

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


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Encore encore!!


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## belfastboy

I'm loving this new Partita business...! Not so much the Harpsichord, but flute and Violin....give me more! Thanks!!


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## Head_case

> This is magical, beautiful - why have I not come across this before!?!


Too busy listening to camp opera classics lol? 

The baroque traverso flute went in decline and has kind of had a counterculture (counter-postmodern that is) revival - it is still a specialist interest - although the flute sonatas are standard chamber repertoire (think introverted; quietly self-assured; detailed and analytical, rather than loud and extroverted!) I'd heard the Bach flute partita for years in standard recordings and never noticed how beautiful it was until I started trying to play it. I came across the baroque traverso - the Early Music Festival (Greenwich); the Lufthansa Festival (London & Europewide) are amongst the most popular ones - flutists in the know get exposure to this great stuff 

Lots of reasons why I like it: the baroque traverso is tuned to a lower (less stressful pitch) from A=392Hz - 400Hz, 410Hz, 415Hz, 420Hz being the most popular ones, as well as A=440Hz (modern post 1955 pitch). Modern pitch is high pitched and not very relaxed. It goes against the nature of the baroque traverso which was probably pitched around the far low end. Its intonation is very subtle with delicate shadings. Jed Wentz, is an accomplished player and international baroque traverso professor: he has the skill to fill the generally quiet baroque traverso flute with a projection which most flutists associate with sterile silver metallic sounding flutes (which lack the subtle nuances of the baroque traverso). Equally, modern virtuosos, like Rampal and Pahud, tend to take the Bach flute Partita at breakneck speed. It's not a competition, however their speed tends to lose that very expressivity of turn, which each single note from the baroque traverso flute captures for me. So I listen again and again, discovering different detail coming to life in the baroque traverso performance. It's that combination of his restrained virtuosity and the reproduction baroque traverso approach, to recapturing the essence of Bach's flute Partita which I really like.

That's just the short version


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## Philip

BWV995 to BWV1013 is all the music i need in this world!!


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## Krisena

Asking what Bach you should listen to is like wondering what sentence to read in a novel.


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## Head_case

Krisena said:


> Asking what Bach you should listen to is like wondering what sentence to read in a novel.


oops. can't see clearly. Which sentence should I be reading?


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## Oliver

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> They are all lovely in their own little ways. My first complete recording on CD of the six partitas were those played by Trevor Pinnock on a harpsichord. Still one of the finest interpretations around, me think.
> 
> JS Bach at his finest.


Thanks for the recommendation, just downloaded his collection. Love it.


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## Vaneyes

Being unmusicological, I dislike dissecting. 

Favorite recs...

View attachment 7302
View attachment 7303


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