Suite from J.S. Bach’s Partita in E major for solo violin

Preludio: non allegro

Gavotte

Gigue

Bach’s solo violin sonatas and partitas were a potent source of fascination to generations of nineteenth and twentieth century composers. In the belief either that something is missing or that, complete though they might be in themselves, these solo pieces could usefully be elaborated in a more complex medium, they have supplied accompaniments for them, orchestrated them, and rewritten them for piano. Rachmaninov’s piano arrangement of three movements from the Partita in E major - written in 1932 or 1933, between the Corelli Variations and the Paganini Rhapsody - is perhaps not as distinguished as Brahms’s challenging version of the Chaconne in D minor for left hand only or Busoni’s monumental two-hands version of the same piece. But it is no less resourceful and, with so many facets of the Rachmaninov personality clearly showing through, it is even more interesting in a way.

In the Preludio what is Bach and what is Rachmaninov is easy enough to distinguish: except in a multi-stopped cadence near the end, Bach presents a solo line with no harmonies and, except in the first two bars and on that same cadence, with no divergence from articulation in an even flow of semi-quavers. Anything else is by Rachmaninov - the phrasing, the dynamic colouring, the rhythmic variety, the enterprisingly contrapuntal textures and all but the cadential harmonies. The melodic line of the Gavotte, on the other hand, is sturdily harmonised in the Bach original and modestly counterpointed here and there as well. Rachmaninov adds more and more of the same, indulging himself this time not only in an imitative treatment of the theme but also in more sustained lines in the inner parts. In the Gigue, which is no more than a single line in the Partita, Rachmaninov resorts to the methods he adopted in the Preludio, spelling out the harmonies implied by Bach, postulating a few of his own, and dramatically filling out the texture at the climactic points.