A QUESTION OF BALANCE

Italian violinist Fabio Biondi’s new album of Bach Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin marks a unique opportunity to challenge established interpretations and beliefs surrounding these seminal works,

'I wanted to do something different. But different for which world? The Baroque world or the modern world? It’s true my career has been largely dedicated to Baroque music, but I try to have a wider perspective.’ On his new album featuring Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, Italian violinist Fabio Biondi aims to tackle what he describes as ‘maniacal’ views in the world of historically informed performance. Less interested in practical matters such as period instruments or pitch, the violinist is instead fascinated by Bach’s musical language. ‘The priority should be learning the language, then using it to find different ways of approaching each piece,’ he says. Of course, such idolised music comes with high expectations, and it demands a balanced approach. ‘It is delicate and difficult. You can’t invent too much.

The album presented a good opportunity to join modern performance practices with Baroque music and say, “It’s time to share, not to make a point, or to prove that something is true or false.”’

It’s surprising to hear that an artist as accomplished as Biondi was anxious before making the album. ‘My feelings about the Sonatas and Partitas are strange. I have played them many times, but for this recording I was scared I was not mature enough. And the pandemic was a good friend in this respect, as it gave me time to think very deeply about different aspects of the pieces.’ Biondi also says that much of the attraction of the project lay in the fact that it would push his boundaries – something that comes with interpreting such widely known works. ‘From the moment I decided to do the album, I always played the whole set all together.

ALAN GELATI/NAÏVE

‘THE OBJECTIVE WAS BACH, NOT BIONDI’ – VIOLINIST FABIO BIONDI

I put the focus on this project for a whole year.’

Finding a recording location, Biondi explains, ‘was a long, difficult process. We tried a lot of places. We were looking for good acoustics, an isolated place where I could concentrate, and a quiet place appropriate for solo recording.’ In the end, it was a former monastery that provided salvation. ‘The church there has been transformed into an auditorium. It’s extremely quiet. And because we weren’t completely isolated, it was nice to go to restaurants after a day’s recording. It was a good combination, after a lot of options, and I am very happy.’

Asked if he opted for historically accurate instruments on the album, Biondi responds ‘ni’ – a combination of no (‘no’) and si (‘yes’) in his native Italian. ‘That’s not my priority,’ he clarifies. ‘Of course, I am interested in old instruments, and I used gut strings and a Baroque bow, but the language is the first step – to think about your approach to the chords and the problems of polyphony.

On this album, I had the opportunity simply to speak through Bach’s music.

The objective was Bach, not Biondi.’

Practical examples of this philosophy of his are plentiful. ‘I’m sure some will be shocked by my approach to the Chaconne’s arpeggios. The arpeggio in Bach’s time had many different meanings; there are many ways to execute it. So here was a chance to show many solutions to the issue of “arpeggio”.’ He goes on: ‘Sometimes the audience is dogmatic about Baroque pitch. But in those times, pitch changed every 30km within Europe! So, do we use the pitch of the place, composer or performance?

We could instead spend this time thinking about ornamentation.’ Another opportunity for experimentation was tempo. ‘It is very interesting to think about the relation between tempos in the works, especially with the returning doubles in the first partita.’

Biondi is philosophical about leaving a lasting legacy through his recording.

‘I think we are in a dangerous moment, where musicians often use music to show their ability,’ he says. ‘But if you want the audience to say, “Wow!” you must accept that the sound cannot always be perfect – instead it should be natural. I worked a lot with my engineer to make the recording feel like a live concert.’

Fabio Biondi: ‘fascinated by Bach’s musical language’

WOJCIECH GRZEDZINSKI

He also notes the dangers of risk-averse interpretations of Bach, fuelled by the composer’s sacred place in the musical canon. ‘We often hear, “Bach is too important to touch.” But we must accept that we play Bach’s works in a completely different social context from the one in which they were written. We should use our knowledge of past and present eras to develop new approaches. I won’t do something new for the sake of it.’

The booklet accompanying the album provided another chance to challenge norms. In it, Biondi and Naïve jointly decided to include a short story written for the project by Japanese author Akira Mizubayashi, In the Back of a Bookshop in 1943, in which an 86-year-old man recounts his experience with the Sonatas and Partitas. ‘Often an album’s booklet includes the usual information about “historically informed blah-blah”, but let’s stop the blah-blah!’

That Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas have a significant market value cannot be ignored. A single mention of a new album by a respected artist will all but ensure a substantial audience. This exposure is nothing new for Biondi, whose album of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (the one recorded in 1991) has garnered more than 16 million Spotify streams.

‘It is normal to enjoy a good reaction from audiences and critics, but I would not accept a recording project just for this.’ Instead, he explains that Bach’s popularity makes it all the more important to put a new spin on the works. ‘They are very famous pieces, so when you add new ideas, it’s obvious.’ In addition to all this, Biondi feels a deep affinity with these particular works, he says. He feels that in some way they are ‘a good mirror’ of him as he is now, and so it is the right time to record them.

The album’s raison d’être, then, comes down to the convergence of multiple opportunities: for Biondi to challenge himself personally; for presenting new interpretations by capitalising on the music’s popularity; and for the audience, to reassess established opinions on historically informed performance.

Attempting a balance between Baroque style and modern expectations in Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas is no easy task, but Biondi ultimately solves the problem:

‘I’ll do Bach a little for everybody!’

WORKS Bach Sonatas and Partitas BWV1001–6

ARTIST Fabio Biondi (vn)

RECORDING VENUE Oratorio di Santa Croce, Fondazione Academia Montis Regalis, Mondovi, Italy

RECORDING DATES 19–22 June 2020

CATALOGUE NO. Naïve V 7261

RELEASE DATE 15 October 2021