Download the PDF programme here. Reproduction and distribution is strictly prohibited.

Unpublished until more than 50 years after Bach’s death, his two sets of works for solo violin have challenged players ever since and indeed continue to serve as exemplars for subsequent composers attempting the medium. Each of the sonatas consists of four movements on a slow-fast-slow-fast pattern, familiar as the sonata da chiesa (church sonata) form; while the partitas concentrate on a regular but occasionally varied order of dance-based movements.