Thread: Bach, solo violin

Henryk Szeryng was a great violinist, absolutely amazing but his playing has about as much understanding of Bach as Wayne Rooney's would

Try someone with a little more styllistic knowledge. Some of the things that many players from his generation do are just fundametally wrong and a lot of important discoveries have been made since his recordings were made. I'm not trying to knock him down, I fully appreciate just how good he is, but I would really suggest finding a selection of recordings from a baroque violinist. It doesn't really matter which instrument they're played on, but it does matter how they're played and a baroque fiddler is more likely to understand the phrasing etc than someone who hasn't studied early music all that much.

I don't deny that - I know he was awesome, a magnificent sound and probably played about two notes out of tune in his whole life, but I'm just saying that we've learnt much more about performing Bach and music from that period now - perhaps it is wise to take advantage of these advances by looking for recordings that take performance practice more into account.

Nothing will ever be totally conclusive, but if you've studied bach, performance practice, have a knowledge of baroque dance, ornamentation, an understanding of harmony and rhetoric then you have a better chance of 'knowing' (as you say) how the music should be played.

Not to say that 2 people, or even 1 person will ever play the same piece in the same way because 'that's how it goes', but it is vital to understand the style, to understand where bach was coming from and to understand some of the performing conventions of the day, otherwise you are simply not playing the music that bach wrote.

Although Bach ornamented his music himself far more than any other baroque composer, there is still a basic understanding of the style that is required before you can get close to knowing how to play his music. Too many people don't do this and consequently we have too many performances that are totally irrelevant even if the instrumental playing might well be fantastic.

Its not that people who have studied this music 'know' how it goes, but we sure have a headstart on people who don't - same as anything in life. You wouldn't drive a car through London without learning how to drive first.