• Tracks

The music on this recording demonstrates how Baroque composers in Germany, Italy, Austria and England responded to the challenges of writing for violin senza basso. Music for violin solo had a distinguished history before Bach and was widely cultivated by his contemporaries. Violinistic virtuosity was extraordinarily experimental in the late seventeenth century, with novelties in the tuning of the strings (scordatura), bowing techniques, chordal playing and contrapuntal textures (with the development of sophisticated double-, triple- and quadruple-stopping techniques) and playing in high positions. This disc of solo violin music is a real mixture of some of Rachel's favorite pieces.