Bach's Chaconne - Maxim Vengerov and John Feeley

Yehudi Menuhin called the Chaconne "the greatest structure for solo violin that exists".

Violinist Joshua Bell has said the Chaconne is "not just one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, but one of the greatest achievements of any man in history. It's a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, structurally perfect."   [Wikipedia].

Bach is said to have written the Chaconne in memory of his first wife, Maria Barbara Bach (who died in 1720); in any event, it is often conceived as being suffused in grief.

"We are walking to an infirmary block in Auschwitz to hear something beautiful - the great Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov performing the chaconne from Bach's D minor Partita No 2 ..."

With its polyphonic structure, the Chaconne is at the limits of playability on the violin:

"The Chaconne is often performed on guitar. Marc Pincherle, Secretary of the French Society of Musicology in Paris, wrote in 1930: "If, insofar as certain rapid monodic passages are concerned, opinion is divided between the violin and the guitar as the better medium, the guitar always triumphs in polyphonic passages; that is to say almost throughout the entire work. The timbre of the guitar creates new and emotional resonance and unsuspected dynamic gradations in those passages which might have been created purely for the violin; as for instance the variations in arpeggi."

The most well-known transcription for guitar is the Segovia transcription. Many guitarists today prefer to play the Chaconne directly from the violin score."

I particularly like this performance by John Feeley, the Irish classical guitarist.

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Maxim Vengerov's performance screams with searing agony; John Feeley is quiet and reflective, a meditation on grief.