Jonian Ilias Kadesha - Hommage à J. S. B.: Works for Violin Solo - The Strad

Where the album does live up to its title is in a remarkable account of the D minor Partita. Without the safety net of vibrato, tone this sweet and intonation this true are rare indeed. Eschewing the unadorned phrasing of Ibragimova and tonal extremes of Kopatchinskaja, Kadesha’s Bach nevertheless belongs with them in the top tier of distinctively 21st-century responses to Baroque rhetoric. The Chaconne must be among the quickest on record, yet there is no feeling of haste about Kadesha’s dramatic leap from the quicksilver patter of the Gigue, or the relaxed heartbeat of his spread chords for the theme. It’s all in the dynamics, such as the audacious, almost whispered incantation of the cross-string section.