Violinist Yuki Numata Resnick often performs with the Talea Ensemble and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. Here, she explores her obsession with Bach through works written for her by 4 composers. The new works sit within the movements of Bach’s Partita No. 1 in B Minor, BMV 1002. Each composer creates a sound world that takes the listener on an unexpected journey, from a post-minimalist memory of Bach to a children’s story about a money named Trunket.
The Partita contains 4 dances, each with a “Double,” Bach’s variation and elaboration of the original dance. The eight pieces are considered among the highest pinnacles of the solo violin repertory. Each of the four dances in the Partita consists of two halves, each of which is repeated once as an invitation to the violinist to add variations. Burhams’ Remembrance resembles Bach, but changes the harmonies and avoids points of musical arrival or departure. Iannotta’s Dead Wasps in the Jam Jar uses glissandos and adds circular paperclips to the strings and a range of bow pressures to create noise effects. Marks’ Sarabande has the violin accompanying a story telling about the monkey Trunket, with varying sound effects. Greenwald’s Bourrée uses the right and left hands to ornament the piece, sometimes in conflict with one another and producing growling, splintered, glitchy textures that faintly echo Bach’s harmonies.