Todays comparison of style will be with violinist Arthur Grumiaux and Nathan Milstein who are similar in how they portray what could be regarded as a more modern approach to Bach’s music. Yesterday I looked at two Baroque specialists and today with two other performers who prefer to capture the feeling of Bach in a more full-on-sound approach. Due to how the baroque violin was challenged by modern advancement in violin making, recordings from the 1960’s experiment more with this new power which can still bring Bach alive – even if its not using what was used in the day.
The Belgian violinist Arthur Grumiaux is considered to be a great violin virtuosi of the twentieth century. Bringing performances that are technically accurate and sensitive to musical structure. I believe his style comes across much better in romantic repertoire however, I believe his style is something I could maybe take with a pinch of salt and apply.
(Similarly to Perlman)
American/Russian Violinist Nathan Milstein like Grumiaux is considered iconic in the 20th Century and was known for his recordings of Bach’s solo works (which is why I have picked him) and of his romantic works. He had a long career until breaking his hand in the 80’s and sadly died 22 years ago, the year I was born.
So with these two figures in mind I decided to focus on the D minor Sarabande from Partita No.2 more closely and took notes on there interpretation and of the qualities I heard in each recording – which will help me further in personal practice in deciding and experimenting with the sound I would like to capture and which I can still bring across the differences and contrasts to the public.
Arthur Grumiaux Sarabande
- Fuller chords – in comparison to the baroque recordings – they seem to be more powerful throughout and held on.
- Punchy articulation but stroked not staccato – more detached
- The tempo is very fixed in my personal view – he doesn’t play about too much or stretches rhythms – only at cadential areas.
- rit in measure three with the open A-A double stop.
- When the phrases repeat they are much the same – no change in musicality just pushes through – consistent
- There isn’t much dynamic contrast very forte (loud) and very few shaping of crescendo (louder) and diminuendo (softer)
- The rhythms however in the second half (subject) is more contrast unlike the first half of the work.
- Definitely a contrast in sections here.
- He accentuates the first beats of the bar and crescendos into important phrases
- rit on last bar.
- Throughout I feel it is very note heavy meaning you can hear every single note with the same power or pressure making it very clear.
- He doesn’t use much vibrato, only using it on longer notes and important chords – otherwise he doesn’t really use it making it very straight. Although the vibrato is quite wide in sound quality – trying to romanticise it.
- In my personal opinion there isn’t much shaping – in contrast to baroque recording from Podger – she shapes continuously by following the lines that Bach wrote – whereas in this example he is clearly thinking about producing a clear powerful sound.
- The sound is beautiful throughout and very powerful portrayal of his music.
Nathan Milstein’s Sarabande
- at the beginning – the opening chords are more held much more than in Grumiaux’s – there is already from the opening phrases the push and pull effect that is characteristic of Baroque music.
- He holds onto harmonic tension and clearly shapes phrases with crescendo and diminuendo – following the line like Podger and Huggett.
- When he repeats the opening section, the second repeat is much louder and gradually becomes softer second half of the phrases by taking more time by lengthening the bass line note.
- He doesn’t hold so much in measure 3 Grumiaux does
- The second half of the Sarabande is much slower than the first half where this is suggested by the slower trills and accentuation of rhythms. The music at this point is very rhythmically driven.
- As he has chosen to take time here I feel that the harmony comes alive more.
- Vibrato is shorter and uses it a little more on longer notes.
- He treats the music with that idea of the harpsichord making the lines feel separate
- No rit at end but a diminuendo.
lauren hamilton violinist 