“To hear Mullova play Bach is, simply, one of the greatest things you can experience”, wrote the London Guardian.
ONYX now proudly announces Viktoria Mullova’s first COMPLETE recording of the Bach Sonatas & Partitas. SURE TO BE ONE OF THE MAJOR RELEASES OF 2009!
For Philips in the early 90s Viktoria recorded the 3 Partitas on a modern violin but has never recorded the Sonatas, and in the meantime her interpretations have been transformed by her studies in Baroque practice and her subsequent performances with masters such as Gardiner, Dantone, Harnoncourt, Antonini and il Giardino Armonico.
Mullova’s fifth release on ONYX: previous releases including Bach Sonatas with Dantone (ONYX4020) and Vivaldi Concertos with Giardino Armonico (ONYX4001)
2CDs for the price of 1.5. Deluxe digipak format with booklet containing article by Viktoria herself explaining her long and still-evolving journey working on Bach
“In this recording Viktoria Mullova presents virtually flawless playing but, of greater importance, she sustains an impeccably punctuated, modulated and compelling dialogue through Bach's counterpoint with seemingly effortless intimacy and charm.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2009 ****
“These are outstanding performances… Mullova brings together several ideal qualities for a Bach player. Firstly, there's a secure sense of style… Then there's her superior, virtuoso's technique, producing beautifully precise tuning and, in the fugal movements finely controlled, varied and euphonious playing of the most densely polyphonic passages. To this we can add her deep musical understanding; by means of subtle emphasis and natural dynamic contrasts, she draws our attention to the beauty of Bach's harmonic progressions and to the balance and grandeur of his designs.” Gramophone Magazine, May 2009
“Mullova's sense of an ongoing musical line is immaculate and totally unselfconscious, the authority of her performances is never in doubt.” The Guardian, 15th May 2009 ****
“This set of Bach's six solo Sonatas and Partitas BWV1001-6 represents the first fruits of Mullova's full adoption of period tools of the trade alongside her assimilation of an apposite style of playing. And what remarkable discs they are. This is wonderfully fluent, absorbingly imaginative playing.” Daily Telegraph, 7th April 2009 *****
“The virtuosity is stunning; the complex fugues in the C major and A minor sonatas are perfectly lucid, and the great D minor chaconne rises to an electrifying mid-point climax.” The Observer, 5th April 2009
