Bach’s Complete Sonatas and Partitas

“An inspiring voyage of discovery, a breathtaking adventure”. When Liza Ferschtman performs Bach’s complete Sonatas and Partitas in one evening, five-star reviews and superlatives appear in the newspapers. Over two hours of sublime music in a concert with two intermissions. Liza Ferschtman’s interpretation of Bach is so masterful that you would never get the idea of attending a marathon concert. No detail escapes her. Her Bach sings, speaks and dances. Inspired by Rachel Podger, Walter van Hauwe and Anner Bylsma – icons of early music – she brings Bach’s baroque world convincingly into the present. Liza tunes her Guarneri violin to 415 Hz.

With Bach, Liza Ferschtman proves that she is one of the most captivating violinists performing today. As artistic director, she has been the figurehead of the Delft Chamber Music Festival for many years. We noted that she had only planned to perform the complete cycle in Utrecht and London, and decided to bring it to The Hague a month and a half before our concert date. Classical NOW! wants to react quickly to current events.

Soul reflections in all the colours of the rainbow

Bach completed his six sonatas and partitas for solo violin around 1720, some 300 years ago. Wenneke Savenije sums up the universal eloquence of Bach’s Six Solos. “What complexity, what whole cosmos of possibilities did Bach manage to capture in his musical language! What awe-inspiring stories can be heard in Bach’s universal notes, in the agile voices and counter-voices, in the majestic structures. Bach’s spiritual music offers the listener reflections of the soul in all the colours of the rainbow.”

Liza Ferschtman’s Bach: press quotes

“Already the opening arpeggio in Bach’s Sonata no. 1 makes you want to hear it a hundred times in a row. Pure poetry. Has it ever been played so beautifully? And Ferschtman maintains the towering level throughout the CD. The fugal lines are clear, the tone is always beautiful and the musical depth is unfathomable (there is always a mysterious melancholy present).”

Erik Voermans in Het Parool *****

“Unforgettable. As it grew darker outside, inside the Oude Kerk in Soest, the ever more radiant and intimate circle of light around Ferschtman sucked up all attention ... Ferschtman thought, spoke and sang on her violin. She became the perfect portrayal of the word lonely: together with the one: Bach in this case. Where outside the rain washed the world, inside Ferschtman washed the soul with Bach.”

Joost Galema in de NRC *****

“Far more important proved to be Ferschtman’s innate musicality, her violinistic virtuosity (in the good sense of the word) and her almost psychic ‘intuition’ for the divine and universal that Bach sought to express in the forms, structures, movements and harmonies of his 6 Sonatas & Partitas for solo violin. Her inspiring journey of discovery through his mysterious and profound violin cycle therefore sounded like a breathtaking adventure.”

Wenneke Savenije in de Nieuwe Muze

“With Bach’s solo works, the extraordinary thing is that you can create music on your own that is so incredibly complete ... With Bach, everything is always perfect.”

Liza Ferschtman