School of Music faculty (from left): Isabel Ong, David Rose and Jessica Tong.
Three School of Music faculty will present a special marathon concert showcasing J.S. Bach’s complete Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas.
The performance by Adjunct Lecturer Isabel Ong, Associate Professor David Rose and Associate Professor Jessica Tong will be held Friday, Feb. 6, 7 p.m., in Juliet J. Rosch Recital Hall. It is free and open to the public.
The collection of six pieces represents masterpieces of composition, innovation, and monumental pieces in the traditional canon of violin repertoire.
"At first hearing, the listener could be completely taken by the timelessness, the apparent contemporaneous feel, of each of these works, and in practicing them, one loses oneself in the passing of time,” observed violinist Midori Goto.
“From a compositional perspective, the mastery of counterpoint and thematic writing has not lost its mystery; the perfection of the compositional techniques employed has superseded the passage of time,” Ms. Goto explained.
“This is music that presents each listener and performer with an intense experience that cannot be replicated; requiring complete abandonment to the music and the workings of a mind so transcendent.”
The compositions place huge organizational demands on a player, who is required to execute a multitude of voices, lines, melodies, counterpoint, and within all that convey the music’s character and impressions.
“At first, Bach’s individual line is simple, but then, when presented in multiple voices, complexities emerge, and it becomes the greatest of challenges to simultaneously render differing lines while retaining their underlying simplicity," Goto concluded.
