Feb 4: Sony Classical Releases Leonidas Kavakos' Recording of Bach’s Complete Partitas and Sonatas

[Note: To request downloads or CDs, email maggie@jensenartists.com.]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts: Maggie Stapleton, Jensen Artists
maggie@jensenartists.com | 646.536.7864 x2

Sony Music Masterworks: Larissa Slezak, Ellie Harrison
Larissa.Slezak@sonymusic.com | Ellie.Harrison@sonymusic.com

Leonidas Kavakos
Bach’s Complete Partitas and Sonatas
Album Available February 4, 2022
First Single Out Now – Partita No. 3: II. Loure
Listen and Preorder Here

Album Cover: Download Here

“Kavakos’ tone has the character of striking high-grade silver sinew, ever beautiful, graceful and unbreakable” – Los Angeles Times

Ever-restless, ever-questioning and consistently captivating, Leonidas Kavakos, “the violinist’s violinist” (The Strad), is recognized as one of the greatest musicians alive.  An exclusive Sony Classical artist since 2018, Kavakos now stands ready to release his most significant recording yet – his first account of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin.  Titled Bach – Sei Solo, the double album is set for release on February 4, 2022 with the first single and album preorders available now.

The recording also includes the famous Chaconne in D minor from the Partita No. 2, considered by many to be Bach’s single greatest span of music. Like many of his coevals, Bach could create great structures in sound, making use of the full panoply of choir, orchestra, and soloists. However, he was unique in his ability to conjure similar architectural marvels out of a single instrument. Bach titled his set Sei Solo – both a description of the work itself (“six solos”) and a reminder of the challenge to the player: “you are alone.”

Leonidas Kavakos tackles that challenge and “keeps a firm grip on the rhythm, but one never gets the feeling that he is merely metronomic. Indeed, in the Double of the Courante, he wrestles the flood of notes into long, well-formed phrases, establishing a structure of impressive breadth and integrity…every line seems sharply etched, and Kavakos takes unusual care to balance the voices,” notes Gramophone.

“Harmony’s rhythm and rhythm’s harmony are decisive assistants towards achieving the divine aspect of existence,” says Kavakos and continues “’Wir danken dir, Gott (We thank you, God)’ is the title of Bach’s Cantata No. 29, the opening Sinfonia of which is a transcription for organ and orchestra of the Preludio from Partita No. 3. It could equally well serve as the title for all six sonatas and partitas, an opus consisting of two triads which, through the peerless swirling of the great Thomas cantor’s compositions, enlighten the individual responsibility of existence (“SeiSolo”), a vital component of collective Spacetime!”

Kavakos’s account of Bach’s scores, which have been interpreted by every major violinist throughout history, will be a major moment in his career. The album was recorded in December 2020 in Berlin, with Kavakos playing his 1734 ‘Willemotte’ Stradivarius.

Kavakos is a laureate of the great violin competitions and a visitor to the great orchestras of the world – as both violinist and conductor. In 2017 he joined the likes of Shostakovich, Rostropovich and Rubinstein as a laureate of the Sonning Music Prize.

LEONIDAS KAVAKOS: BACH – SEI SOLO TRACKLIST:

Disc 1

Partita for Solo Violin No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006

1 I Preludio
2 I I Loure
3 III Gavotte en Rondeau
4 IV Menuet I – V Menuet II
5 V I Bourrée
6 VII Gigue

Sonata for Solo Violin No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005

7 I Adagio
8 I I Fuga
9 III Largo
1 0 I V Allegro assai

Sonata for Solo Violin No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003

11 I Grave
12 I I Fuga
13 III Andante
14 I V Allegro

Disc 2

Sonata for Solo Violin No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001

1 I Adagio
2 I I Fuga. Allegro
3 III Siciliana
4 I V Presto

Partita for Solo Violin No. 1 in B minor, BWV 1002

5 I Allemanda
6 I I Double
7 III Corrente
8 I V Double. Presto
9 V Sarabande
1 0 V I Double
11 VII Tempo di Borea
12 VIII Double 

Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

13 I Allemanda
14 I I Corrente
15 III Sarabanda
16 I V Giga
17 V Ciaccona

Connect with Leonidas Kavakos

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Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.

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