Viktoria Mullova, Ottavio Dantone - J.S.Bach - Sonatas (2007)

Violinist Viktoria Mullova made two great decisions before she made this record. First, she decided to record not only Bach's canonical six sonatas for violin and harpsichord, but also his Sonata in G major for violin and continuo and his Trio Sonata in C major for violin and continuo -- the continuo in question being organ and viola da gamba and the third instrument in the trio being a flute. This decision not only more generously filled the discs and more amply expanded the range and color of the ensemble, it added new players for Mullova and harpsichordist/organist Ottavio Dantone to play with, to wit, gambist Vittorio Ghielmi and flutist Luca Pianca. Second, she decided to be herself, the self trained under Leonid Kogan in the Moscow Conservatoire, and defected from the USSR when she was 24, and can play anything from the Beatles to Shostakovich. She can instantly change from cool and serene to fiery and passionate depending on the mood and the music. Thus when Mullova actually came to make the record, she had superb repertoire, a terrific ensemble, and a tone, a technique, and and a temperament primed and ready to take on Bach's magnificent music.

The results are breathtaking. In the six sonatas, Mullova and Dantone play together with intimacy and expressivity, phrasing together, shaping together, and bending and molding together so that the performance becomes far more than the sum of its parts. In the two additional works, Mullova and Dantone with Ghielmi and Pianca play with a tight but relaxed ensemble that weaves in and out and around and through each other with supreme skill and effortless elegance. Recorded in the Alte Grieser Marienkirche in Bolzano, Italy, in 2007 and produced, engineered, and mastered in rich, lustrous, and deep sound by Michael Seberich, this record belongs on the same shelf with the best recordings of Bach's violin sonatas ever made.