We know through his records that James Ehnes is a formidable interpreter of Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin of Bach. But living the thing “in real life”, like Sunday afternoon at the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club, is a special experience.
An interpretation of Sonatas and Partitas of Bach which holds the prowess is inevitably an experiment which marks a life. The German violinist Christian Tetzlaff, who played them at the Bach Festival a few months ago, is a first-rate performer. The fact remains that we perceive at all times that he is grappling with a matter that almost necessarily goes beyond the human being.
Three times in our life we had the almost unreal impression in concert of an artist who dominated this same material in an almost superhuman way: in 1977 in Strasbourg with Itzhak Perlman in the 2nd Sonata and the 2nd And 3rd Partitasin 2007 at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival with Rachel Barton Pine in its entirety and this Sunday, April 16, 2023 with James Ehnes at Pollack Hall in the 3rd Partita and the Sonatas n° 2 and 3.
Perpetual motion
There is in this quintessence of art, the mastery of the text, the sound beauty, the accuracy, but also this indescribable dimension, a bit like a “musical pheromone”, a distilled sensation that nothing can happen in works where, on the contrary, the instrumentalist is supposed to be on a tightrope from one end to the other.
Instrumental ease and sound curve, Ehnes has always had them, but elements have been added over time. The differentiation in the dances for example, for the 3rd Partita who started the concert contrary to the order indicated on the program. There is still that huge bowing control, but also the soft pulsation of Minuet I, the so elegant end of Minuet II. Bourrée and Gigue concentrate the characteristics that make James Ehnes the best of all violinists at the moment in these works: an ability in very sustained tempos to simulate sorts of perpetual movements of great equality, with dynamic contrasts totally integrated into the flow (Bourrée) and a breath of staggering equality (Allegro assai from the 3rd Sonata, at the end of the concert).
This supreme art is reminiscent of these Balinese flautists with continuous breath and also reminds us that to reach Everest in Bach is to achieve the art of “non-jerk”. So often, we cut movements into slices, we over-articulate. Ehnes manages to articulate and blend the music at the same time, especially in the Fugues and the slow movements of the Sonatas. It’s all almost like magic.
In 48 hours, Montreal saw the greatest violist on the planet, Antoine Tamestit, and one of the three greatest violinists, possibly the greatest. What a privilege!