Bach: Partitas & Sonatas
Bojan Čičić, violin
Delphian DCD34300. 78’46+67’14, 2CDs

Many of Bojan Čičić‘s recordings have focussed on lesser-known composers, their music brought to life with inspiring performances. He now turns his attention to Bach with this recording of the Partitas & Sonatas (Sei solo à violin senza basso accompagnato), BWV 1001-1006. Unusually, the Partitas are on the first CD with the Sonatas on the second, rather than in the order that Bach seems to have intended with the two genres alternating. This allows us to concentrate on how Bach deals with the sequences of dance movements in the Partitas and the more formal Corelli-inspired four-movement structure of the Sonatas.

It was recorded in 2021 (during lockdown gaps) in the 15th-century Crichton Collegiate Church in Midlothian, southeast of Edinburgh where Delphian is based. The acoustics are perfect for this music, giving a generous bloom to the violin sound. However, this is probably not the acoustic of the still surviving mirrored music room in Köthen, where they were likely first performed. Bach was Kapellmeister to the princely court in Köthen from 1717 to 1723. Prince Leopold was about nine years younger than Bach. He was musical but as a Calvinist, he did not require any sacred music from his court composer. Bach therefore concentrated on instrumental music, composing some of his finest works including the Brandenburg Concertos, the first part of The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Orchestral Suites, and the pieces for solo cello and violin. It was also a time of personal complexity, seeing the unexpected death of his first wife Maria Barbara while Bach was away with the Prince, and his marriage to Anna Magdalena, a young singer in the court.

Bojan Čičić plays with an obvious empathy with Bach’s music, giving it the space and time to speak into the acoustic. He makes sensitive use of added ornaments and gentle rhetoric gestures, eschewing empty gestures and showy flamboyance. Although the Presto double of the first Partita 1’s Corrente is taken at a breakneck speed, Čičić just about holds onto things – an exhilarating edge-of-the-seat performance of extraordinary virtuosity. Perhaps fortunately for the nervous system, that is a rare show of exuberance from Čičić, whose interpretations are otherwise beautifully measured and thoughtfully interpreted. The famous Ciaccona of the 2nd Partita is given a masterly interpretation, with exquisite sensitivity to the varying moods. The jury is still out on whether this piece is dedicated to Maria Barbara or not, Čičić’s performance certainly makes a fitting memorial.

A YouTube video of Bojan Čičić playing the opening Preludio of the 3rd Violin Partita in the Crichton Collegiate Church can be viewed here. Čičić dedicated this album to his teacher from Zagreb, Damir Kukulj, who died shortly after this recording was made.