Victor Solomin is a domra player from Kiew in the Ukraine. He likes to play Jazz and music by Sting on his domra, but he also plays the works by Johann Sebastian Bach. I have compiled a playlist with recordings of the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo by Johann Sebastian Bach played by Victor Solomin on the domra.
The playlist starts with some recordings of the Sonata No. 1 and the Partita No. 1 from the year 2000, followed by some live recordings from a concert given in 2007 in Kiew. This includes a recording of the famous Chaconne.
Enjoy the works by Bach and Victor Solomin!
Playlist Victor Solomin – Sonata Nr. 1 / Partita No. 1 by J. S. Bach for Violin solo
Caterina Lichtenberg and Mike Marshall have played a concert at the Carmel Bach Festival in 2014. A set of youtube videos from this concert is available. You can hear the concerto for oboe and violin BWV 1060 by J. S. Bach, two concert by Antonio Vivaldi and as a great finale the choro Santa Morena.
Caterina Lichtenberg plays on a baroque mandolin and on her German bowlback mandolin.
Have fun with Caterina Lichtenberg and Mike Marshall!
Playlist Caterina Lichtenberg and Mike Marshall – Carmel Bach Festival 2014
Chris Thile has just released his new CD with the first part of the Sonatas and Partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach. I have not bought the CD yet, but I have found many new videos with Chris Thile playing pieces from this CD.
Recordings of the Presto from the Sonata No. 1 in G minor have appeared for some time on youtube, but now there’s a complete set of videos with a great recording of the entire Sonata (see my playlist). There are videos with some movements of the other two works that have been recorded.
I have listened to the preview of the tracks on the Amazon website, and I have the impression that the noise from the pick is more present on the recording than on the live videos – so maybe the sound of the videos is even better that the CD. I will check this again when I have the CD available.
Anyway – for me Chris Thile is the first mandolin player who really stands above those pieces, he really can form the music and – according to the interviews – he has has really thought indepth about how to play this music, about the tempi and the dynamics. I have read some comments from others who do not like Thiles interpretation (maybe they are strongly annoyed by the pick noise?) but for me this is the best interpretation of the Sonatas and Partitas by J. S. Bach that I have heard so far.
I have also collected some of the interviews with Chris Thile about his new CD below, it’s really interesting to learn about the ideas that have led to this interpretation.
Chris Thile’s is not the first who made a recording of the Sonatas & Partitas. The Bach Sonatas and Partitas are very often played by guitarists, and also many of the great mandolin players have recorded the suites or at least movements from this great work.
Neil Gladd has recorded the Partita in d minor, BWV 1004, in 1984 (I should listen to this recording again some time…. reinstall the record player…or digitize the recording)
Shmuel Elbaz has recorded the Sonatas & Partitas in 2005, his CD is available from cdbaby (see below).
Also the German Frank Scheuerle has recorded a Bach CD (Bach … auf der Mandoline) which includes the Sonata 1 in g-Minor (BWV 1001) and the suites in c-Minor (BWV 1011) and in G-Major (BWV 1007) and from the Six Suites for violoncello.
Recently I have attended the concert of the mandolin orchestra Kollnau-Gutach. This concert was dedicated to compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach. The program included the 3rd movement of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 played by a guitar quartet.
The slogan used for this concert was:
Bach – And Now!? (Bach – Und Jetzt!?)
After the concert I was inspired to listen to the music of J. S. Bach, and I searched also for other guitar quartets playing music by Bach.
I have found many videos with movements of the Brandenburg concertos and also of other works. And I found more interesting videos with works by Bach played with big guitar orchestras. Especially some orchestras from Japan seem to be very interested in the music by Bach. The Shiba Guitar Club has an interesting archive of performances of several works including the Brandenburg concertos.
I have compiled a large playlist which starts with guitar quartets followed by guitar orchestras.
Enjoy the music by Johann Sebastian Bach played on four or more guitars!
Playlist Bach – Guitar Quartet – Guitar Orchestra
Including performances by Linzer Gitarren Quartett, Fürther Gitarrenquartett, Mönchengladbach Guitar Quartet, Trío de Guitarras Domine, O&A Guitar Quartet, SHIBA GUITAR CLUB, Tama high. Guitar Ensemble Club, Texas Guitar Quartet, San Diego Guitar Quartet and more.
The playlist starts with
Brandenburgisches Konzert Nr. 3 – 3. Satz: Allegro (J. S. Bach) – Linzer Gitarren Quartett
klassisches Gitarrenquartett mit Christina Lechner, Karin Gstöttenmayr, Tanja Fleischanderl, Sylvia Haderer