Bach: Morimur

In 1994, explains the booklet that accompanies Morimur, Professor Helga Thoene made the surprising discovery that the monumental "Ciaccona" from Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin was built around various chorale themes hidden in the music. From the texts of these "secret" chorales and other symbolic musical devices, she deduced that the "Ciaccona" was an epitaph for Bach's wife, Maria Barbara. The revelation might have remained an intriguing (and touching) footnote to Bach scholarship if baroque violinist Christoph Poppen hadn't had the bright idea of taking Professor Thoene's discovery off the library shelves and placing it triumphantly in the concert hall. On this disc, his performance of all five movements of the whole Partita (BWV 1004) is interspersed with the various chorales hidden inside the "Ciaccona," sung with breathtaking precision by the Hilliard Ensemble. The double whammy comes at the end when the "Ciaccona" is performed again, this time with the singers bringing out the secret melodies. Poppen's playing is excellent, both sweet-toned and vibrant, while the Hilliards have never sounded better: the combination of the two is spine-tingling. It is as if Maria Barbara's proper epitaph has finally been realized, and a moving and wonderfully stimulating recording created in the process. --Warwick Thompson