Chaconne

The Chaconne, an object of absolute fascination not only for violinists but also for composers and, ultimately, for every musician, represented a rather unreasonable challenge, but also a fine gift to give to oboist friends in this period of solitude and pandemic. Bach’s love of the oboe is well known, from the cantatas to the oratorios and passions. The striking contrast between this gigantic stele in minor, composed by Bach in the aftermath of the death of his first wife Maria Barbara, and the whimsical Chaconne miniature in major from Telemann’s Fifth Fantasia was enough to convince me. Drawing on the experience of re-recording acquired on the previous volume, I decided to divide the violin part between two oboe voices and an English horn voice. This allowed me to imagine a freer trajectory from monody to polyphony throughout the piece, adding many new musical lines. The greatest technical challenge of the score was undoubtedly the rewriting of the two great bariolages so idiomatic for the violin. Musicologist Helga Thoene Ciaccona’s magnificent work Tanz oder tombeau? shedding light on the multitude of chorales quoted by Bach throughout the piece greatly influenced my arrangement.