Incandescent take on Bach's D minor partita

Korean-American violinist Jennifer Koh balances prodigious technique with genial stage presence

- Geoffrey Lim

A solo violin recital is at once the most intimate and the most heroic form of performance. Pitilessly exposed and unsupported (or unburdened) by an accompanist who might share the spotlight and provide cover for wrong notes, it also requires the violinist to struggle continuously to create the illusion of harmony and texture from the slender resources of his or her fundamentally melodic instrument.

The paucity and difficulty of the solo violin repertory makes these recitals a rare event.

But any such recital is likely to feature at least one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo violin sonatas or partitas, which in their alchemical conjuration of whole edifices of counterpoint from the violin’s four meagre strings represent one of the indisputable summits of musical virtuosity on any instrument.