A historically informed performance of J.S Bach's Solo Violin Partitas by virtuoso violinist Linus Roth.

The cycle of six solo Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach is arguably one of the most powerful and most important compositions in musical history. These works have been with Linus Roth since he was nine years old, when he first learned the Gigue from the E major Partita, moving on by the age of twelve to the first Fugue in G minor to tackling at fifteen the Ciaconna, which represents a cosmos in its own right. By seventeen, Roth had finally learned the entire oeuvre for the first time and since then he is fortunate to have been able to grow as a musician through the constant and welcome challenge of interpreting these remarkable works.

Bach did not write 'Six Solos' on the cover of the score, but instead wrote 'Sei Solo' in Italian, which can have two meanings: the word 'Sei' can be translated both as the number six and also as 'You are'. 'You are alone' - Bach is unlikely to have left something so important to chance or to be playing a simple word game. This announcement – if it is even to be seen as a reminder from the composer to the performer – must be taken seriously and Linus has always viewed it as an invitation to interpret the music as freely as the musical text allows, which for him became a guiding principle in his quest for his own interpretation.

Linus Roth, who received the ECHO KLASSIK Award in 2006 as 'Best Newcomer' for his debut CD on EMI, was honoured with his second ECHO award in 2017 for his recording of the violin concertos by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky with the London Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Sanderling.

Linus Roth plays on the 1703 Stradivarius violin 'Dancla' on generous loan from the music foundation of the L-Bank Baden-Württemberg.