The German violinist Antje Weithaas, an independent-minded player with a career as soloist, chamber musician and conductor/director, has released her third volume of Bach and Ysaÿe. It’s a treat. Between pliant accounts of Bach’s Sonata No 3 in C major and Partita No 1 in B minor, she plays Ysaÿe’s one-movement, habanera-style Sonata No 6 in E major and the Sonata No 4 in E minor. This proves an enlightening way of approaching the Belgian’s super-virtuosic music, inspired by Bach but not necessarily as inviting to take in a single sitting (the set by Alina Ibragimova puts a powerful case). The ever probing Weithaas adroitly combines poetry, technical wizardry and humanity.
