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Bach & Ysaÿe Vol. 1
Johann Sebastian Bach, Eugène Ysaÿe

Antje Weithaas

Bach & Ysaÿe Vol. 1

Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085533206
Catnr: AVI 8553320
Release date: 21 November 2014
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1 CD
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Label
CAvi
UPC
4260085533206
Catalogue number
AVI 8553320
Release date
21 November 2014
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Antje Weithaas launches her trilogy of solo violin CDs with the first work in each cycle.

It was Antje Weithaas’s own idea to jointly record Johann Sebastian Bach’s six sonatas and partitas for solo violin in conjunction with Eugène Ysaÿe’s six solo violin sonatas. “The works by Bach are rather well-known”, she remarks. “But Ysaÿe is invariably shoved into the virtuoso corner, but as a composer he is to be taken quite seriously!”.

Eugène Ysaÿe‘s son remembers that his father started composing the solo violin sonatas when he heard Joseph Szigeti, a violinist younger than himself, play Bach in Brussels in 1923. Antje Weithaas sees many parallels with Bach’s Sonata No. 1 for Solo Violin, BWV 1001: “The works have similar structures.”

“Both composers wrote technically challenging pieces featuring double stops and ornamental figurations. Although there is no proof for such connections, I’m quite certain that Ysaÿe had them in mind.” The fugues, in each case, represent quite a challenge. Each composer demands double and multiple stops from an instrument normally designed to play one part at a time. “The notes are written directly on top of one another, as the composer must have imagined them in his head, but not in the way they are to be executed. Since the performance tradition has not survived, we can only make guesses.”




Artist(s)

Antje Weithaas

In addition to her phenomenal career as a soloist and chamber musician, Antje Weithaas is a soughtafter conductor, particularly renowned for her play-conduct collaborations with leading international chamber orchestras. As artistic director of Camerata Bern for nearly a decade, she helped shape the ensemble’s distinctive musical identity and continues to collaborate with them regularly. From the concertmaster’s podium, she has conducted large-scale repertoire, including Beethoven’s symphonies, and has recorded works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Beethoven for CAvi. She has also enjoyed a close artistic partnership as artiste associé with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. In 2025, she will embark on a South American tour with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. Her extensive discography includes Beethoven’s and Berg’s Violin Concertos (with the Stavanger Symphony...
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In addition to her phenomenal career as a soloist and chamber musician, Antje Weithaas is a soughtafter conductor, particularly renowned for her play-conduct collaborations with leading international chamber orchestras.
As artistic director of Camerata Bern for nearly a decade, she helped shape the ensemble’s distinctive musical identity and continues to collaborate with them regularly. From the concertmaster’s podium, she has conducted large-scale repertoire, including Beethoven’s symphonies, and has recorded works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Beethoven for CAvi.
She has also enjoyed a close artistic partnership as artiste associé with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris.
In 2025, she will embark on a South American tour with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. Her extensive discography includes Beethoven’s and Berg’s Violin Concertos (with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Steven Sloane, CAvi) and the complete works for violin and orchestra by Max Bruch (with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Hermann Bäumer, CPO). Her acclaimed solo recordings feature J. S. Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas and Eugène Ysaÿe’s Six Sonatas. Further highlights include celebrated recordings of Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto and Johannes Brahms’ Double Concerto—alongside cellist Maximilian Hornung and conductor Andrew Manze—which received the BBC Music Magazine Award in the „Concerto“ category. Her recording of Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto and Concerto-Rhapsody with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, conducted by Daniel Raiskin, was also met with critical acclaim. Antje Weithaas began playing the violin at the age of four and studied with Professor Werner Scholz at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin.
She won the Kreisler Competition in Graz in 1987, the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1988, and the prestigious Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover in 1991, which she now co-directs artistically with Oliver Wille. After teaching for several years at the Universität der Künste Berlin, she joined the faculty at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in 2004, where she has since become one of the world’s most respected violin pedagogues.
She performs on a 2001 violin by Peter Greiner.


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Composer(s)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.  Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.  
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Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.


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Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist and composer. He received his first violin lessons from his father at the age of five. At seven years old, he already gave his first public concert. However, it didn't go as his father would have liked it. Eugène didn't try his hardest and at one moment the Conservatory of Liège even refuse to take him because of his bad performance. In 1873, he received 12 lessons from Henryk Wieniawski. Since he admired Wieniawski so much, these lessons had an enormous impact on his career. In 1880, he became the concert master for one year of the Bilse Orchestra in Berlin, the direct predecessor of the Berliner Philharmoniker.  In 1896, he was appointed professor at the Conservatory of...
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Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist and composer. He received his first violin lessons from his father at the age of five. At seven years old, he already gave his first public concert. However, it didn't go as his father would have liked it. Eugène didn't try his hardest and at one moment the Conservatory of Liège even refuse to take him because of his bad performance.
In 1873, he received 12 lessons from Henryk Wieniawski. Since he admired Wieniawski so much, these lessons had an enormous impact on his career. In 1880, he became the concert master for one year of the Bilse Orchestra in Berlin, the direct predecessor of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 1896, he was appointed professor at the Conservatory of Brussels. At this point, it was clear Ysaÿe was not just a masterful violinist, but also a great composer.

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Press

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01.
Sonata No. 1 in G minor for Violin Solo BWV 1001: Adagio
04:01
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
02.
Sonata No. 1 in G minor for Violin Solo BWV 1001: Fugo
05:36
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
03.
Sonata No. 1 in G minor for Violin Solo BWV 1001: Siciliana
02:48
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
04.
Sonata No. 1 in G minor for Violin Solo BWV 1001: Presto
03:21
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
05.
Sonata in G minor for Violin Solo Op. 27 No. 1: Grave – Lento assai
05:01
(Eugène Ysaÿe) Antje Weithaas
06.
Sonata in G minor for Violin Solo Op. 27 No. 1: Fugato – Molto moderato
05:19
(Eugène Ysaÿe) Antje Weithaas
07.
Sonata in G minor for Violin Solo Op. 27 No. 1: Allegretto – Poco scherzoso aimabile
04:10
(Eugène Ysaÿe ) Antje Weithaas
08.
Sonata in G minor for Violin Solo Op. 27 No. 1: Finale con brio – Allegro fermo
03:15
(Eugène Ysaÿe) Antje Weithaas
09.
Sonata in A minor for Violin Solo Op. 27 No. 2: Obsession. Poco vivace
02:48
(Eugène Ysaÿe) Antje Weithaas
10.
Sonata in A minor for Violin Solo Op. 27 No. 2: Malinconia. Poco lento
00:00
(Eugène Ysaÿe) Antje Weithaas
11.
Sonata in A minor for Violin Solo Op. 27 No. 2: Danse des ombres. Lento
00:00
(Eugène Ysaÿe ) Antje Weithaas
12.
Sonata in A minor for Violin Solo Op. 27 No. 2: Les Furies. Allegro furioso
00:00
(Eugène Ysaÿe) Antje Weithaas
13.
Partita Nr. 2 d-Moll / Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004: Allemanda
00:00
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
14.
Partita Nr. 2 d-Moll / Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004: Corrente
00:00
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
15.
Partita Nr. 2 d-Moll / Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004: Sarabanda
00:00
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
16.
Partita Nr. 2 d-Moll / Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004: Giga
00:00
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
17.
Partita Nr. 2 d-Moll / Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004: Ciacconna
00:00
(Johann Sebastian Bach ) Antje Weithaas
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