One of the most original features of the Sonatas for violin and piano BWV 1014-1019 is the imagination shown by Johann Sebastian Bach in harmonic, melodic and contrapuntal terms. The pianist`s right hand and the violin must constantly answer each other, while the basso continuo is entrusted to the pianist`s left hand. The exceptional degree of invention to be found in this musical dialogue – a felicitous harmony between melody and counterpoint – irremediably excludes any form of excessive soliloquising.

Bach`s music can adapt to practically any instrument. The source of sonority is relatively insignificant, since what counts for the composer is the philosophical and intellectual content: the form, the tonal structure and the melodic contours of the work are of greater importance than the instrument per se.

Do we not see in the master of Leipzig a universal icon, a supreme instance through which, in a sense, all music has come into being? In the face of such immensity, it was therefore appropriate to observe a certain simplicity: this disc is anything but a `historical` recording. It does not claim to be the depository of any particular learning and bears the seal of no particular heritage.

The performers play for the listeners of their time. On the one hand, there is Nicolas Dautricourt`s 1713 Stradivarius and, on the other, Juho Pohjonen`s modern Steinway & Sons D.

To listen to this double album is to immerse oneself in a world of abundance and to gain an insight into how such controlled music can still provoke such great emotion, thanks to the talents of these two magnificent artists.