Tasmin Little (violin) – Bach/Ysaye/Patterson

The centrepiece of this excellent free dowload from Tasmin Little’s website http://www.tasminlittle.org.uk/free_cd/index.html (great music, though shame about the naff “Naked Violin” title) is Bach’s Violin Partita No 3. I’ve always avoided solo string music, on the basis that because there is only one line of melody it must be lacking in harmonic interest. How wrong I was. Double stopping gives enormous possibilities, but more than that, I can see that the split between melody and harmony is illusory, because melodies are derived from chords. The music itself is wonderful – stately and graceful, but somehow almost sensual.

Although I’m one of the people who thinks contemporary music should be hard to listen to I also enjoyed Paul Patterson’s Luslawice Variations, which seemed to me to have Shostakovitch influences. (For more info see http://www.paulpatterson.co.uk/luslawice.htm)

Ysaye’s Sonata No 3 in D minor however isn’t really my cup of tea. I don’t go for this sort of florid Romantic violin music, which is why I tend to steer clear of violin concertos between Beethoven and Berg.

But the Bach’s the thing.