Bach:
Partita No. 3 in E Major for solo violin, BWV 1006Schumann: Sonata No. 1 in A minor for violin and piano, Op. 105Boston,
where the Gardner Museum is located, is a big college town. And so every
April, we tip our hats to Boston’s student population with a series of
concerts by some of the top young musicians enrolled in New England
Conservatory’s Artist Diploma program, one of the most prestigious music
training programs in the country. This week on the podcast we will listen to
two Artist Diploma violinists who have performed here in recent years. First,
we’ll hear Bach’s third partita for solo violin. Though neither as virtuosic
nor as familiar as the second partita, the third has all the sprightly energy
of a dance, with its menuets, gigues and bourées. Next is Schumann’s Violin
Sonata No. 1. The sonata was written relatively late in Schumann’s
compositional career, after the bulk of his chamber music works, and it is
evident upon listening that, though it is his first work for this particular
instrumentation, the music is written by a more experienced hand.