LDV88-9

16 BACH | SONATAS & PARTITAS BWV 1001-1006 And perhaps there’s also an autobiographical dimension to the double meaning of ‘Sei Solo’, given that Bach composed the Sonatas and Partitas just after the death of his first wife Maria Barbara. Do you see this music as an intimate prayer? Maybe so, but I think it’s the case above all in the Chaconne, written almost immediately after her death. It is the keystone of this telluric system, the encounter between sacred (the Sonatas) and profane (the Partitas), a dance with death, a dance with God, whom Bach invites to descend to earth, while he himself rises to God’s level. It’s both universal and intimate. Bach is all about organising the universe, with centres of gravity, with the central key, the tonic, like a sun surrounded by its planets. He understood Einstein’s theories long before the physicist ever thought of them! He was a mathematician, an architect, but before that, he was a man, who had received both life and death in his family; many of his numerous children died in infancy. Bach accepted that grief and transformed it into a message of love for his contemporaries, and for posterity. Beyond the complexity, beyond the fascination, there is a profound humanity, which makes him one of the most exceptional people in history. In a way he’s like an ‘ocean’, who takes all humanity into his heart. Ultimately, when you play him, you aren’t alone, you’re with him. You become the world.