While we don’t know why Bach composed his solo violin works, we do know that he was a fine violinist, so their stretching of contemporary violin technique was developed under his own fingers. Partita No. 2 moves from a noble Allemande to a skipping Courante, stately Sarabande and bounding Gigue, before the grand surprise of a monumental Chaconne. Violin virtuoso Eugène Ÿsaye’s six solo sonatas of 1923 were Bach-inspired, with each also dedicated to a famous contemporary violinist. No. 5, for his pupil Mathieu Crickboon, begins by depicting sunrise progressing to full sun, waking insects included, central parallel fourth passages perhaps nodding to Crickboom’s treatise on violin technique. A Danse rustique follows. Stretching technique was equally the goal of Paganini pupil Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst’s 1864 variations on an Irish folk song, The Last Rose of Summer.

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