Chaconne #45 – Private Home, Austin Texas
It has been over a year since my last performance of this great work, and there could not be a more perfect setting than my friends’ home. This past year of semi-isolation and reflection has been a gift for my violin playing, with regular focussed practice without interruption producing a refined harmony between Music and my spirit, body and instrument. A change in the position in which I hold the violin, and a practiced integration with allowing bones and tendons to do the work of playing (as opposed to muscles), has facilitated the articulation of the three – occasionally four – voices that are at the heart of Bach’s writing for the solo violin. This is what I have been striving for since the beginning of the project.
In musical terms I found myself once again exploring the freedom of pulse in the Sarabande and the Chaconne…meaning I allow a phrase to have it’s own speed and character according to the musical inspiration of the moment – linking the flow of the inner pulse to the relationship between the tones of the bass line.
I cannot say how gratifying it is and how happy I am to play for my friends – live and in-person!
