BACH — Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor Bella Hristova, violin Performed on Monday, June 17, 2013 Gould Rehearsal Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia Bach’s Chaconne is among the first great virtuosic works for solo violin. Though it is often performed as a stand-alone piece, it was conceived as the last movement of his second violin partita. Bach’s solo violin music is at the core of every violinist’s repertoire, and the Chaconne is the crowning achievement among these works. Before proceeding, a bit of Baroque-era vocabulary: A “Chaconne” is a slow, stately dance in triple meter (counted in three, like a waltz), featuring a repeating bass line over which a composer writes variations. That bass line loops constantly, never stopping, as varying musical events occur above it. The “Partita,” a favored large-scale form at the time, was a collection of dance movements gathered together into an instrumental suite. Bach’s second partita offers four d