Isabelle Faust (violin) Harmonia Mundi HMC 902124****

Bach’s handwriting, says Isabelle Faust about the autograph of Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin, “radiates grandeur and resolution alongside pulsating vitality. What harmony and equilibrium are to be seen here! And what a hard task it is to make those very features perceptible in performance!”

The opening two movements of the Sonata in G minor make her approach very clear: the Adagio is formal and severe, and the Fuga that follows is pursued with an almost dance-like energy, so that some of the multiple-stopping flicks by with tap-dancing speed.

The pattern is of severity and energy, with an overall effect that's more earnest than unbuttoned. Yes, there are some moments of intimate whispering as well, but the impressive, vibrato-shy delivery is too tuned in to Bachian awe to ever become loose-limbed. url.ie/55ay