Look past the cheesy title and you find an intriguing project by violinist Fenella Humphreys, who is commissioning new British companion pieces to Bach’s six iconic sonatas and partitas. Here she performs the first three commissions, alongside a spirited yet unhurried account of Bach’s E major Partita. Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Suite No 1 is a vibrant response to that work, circling around it and expanding upon some of its gestures with a light yet intense touch, and ending with a jig more rollicking than Bach’s. Gordon Crosse’s Orkney Dreaming, mercurial and ruminative, looks further away from its model and, especially in its finale, towards the islands; Piers Hellawell’s Balcony Scenes creates the illusion that there is more than one instrument in play. Humphreys also includes Biber’s mesmerising Passacaglia, a kind of prototype for Bach’s Chaconne, and Ysaÿe’s Sonata No 2, inspired by the Partita, and she rises emphatically to their challenges.
