For a few months now I have been grinding away trying to learn to play the Allemande from Bach’s Partita #2 for solo violin.  I suppose it is one of the easiest pieces in the set but I am certainly challeneged and extended trying to learn it.   I seem to have a habit of trying to learn pieces that are a bit beyond my capability to play well, and quite honestly I usually don’t get them to a refined enough position where I can claim to play them well.  I …

Dmitry Badiarov is a violin maker and violinist.  He Lectures part time at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and teaches violin making at Daikanyama School of Music, Tokyo.  He is a fascinating convergence of violin making, teaching and professional playing.   It must be quite exhilarating to play music for people on an instrument that you took from a log to a work of art.    Dmitry says, “On one hand, I am devoted to the highest level of craftsmanship, on the other, I do not consider it the purpose: …

The Chaconne is definitely a journey and you feel it from the outset… And then Bach manages to take you through the entire range of human emotion… -Joshua Bell
Michael Lawrence’s new film which explores Bach from a spiritual, intellectual point of view as well as from the perspective of instruments and performance includes interviews with violinist Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn and many others.  The project is now in post production and looks like it will be a beautifully shot and very interesting documentary.  Watch a preview and Joshua Bell playing …

This two disk set of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin presents an wonderful interpretation of the music using a Baroque style instrument and gut strings.  John Holloway is a pioneer of the early music movement which seeks to reproduce early music in the manner it was originally intended and heard.  Holloway approaches Bach’s masterpiece from a perspective of the music that came before in contrast to many twentieth century violinists who approach these works with a perspective of what came after.
Check out the authentically Baroque Sonatas and Partitas …

The film by Pere Portabella is “an approach to music and the trades and subjects that surround it through Bach’s works.” It was presented at the 64th Venice International Film Festival 2007. A series of beautiful vignettes which explores the relationship between image and music where the music is the subject of the narrative itself.