Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Solo Violin, BWV 1003, "Andante"
J.S. Bach (1685–1750)

Violin Sonata No. 12 in D Minor, Op. 5, "La Folia"
Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713), edited by Zino Francescatti (1902–1991)

Violin Sonata No. 5 in F Major, Op. 24, "Spring"
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

CD Liner

In this live recital, violinist Ava GianGrasso presents a selection of favorite works from various musical eras, exploring how historical bowing practices shape interpretation. Opening the programme is the third-movement Andante from J. S. Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A Minor for Solo Violin (BWV 1003), using bowing practice informed by Bach’s own era. Following is Corelli’s Follia, Op. 5, No. 12, arranged by Zino Francescatti, and delivered with a performance practice appropriate to the mid-20th century. This immediately presents a contrast between two Baroque works: the first through a period approach, and the second through a modern lens. Concluding the programme is Beethoven’s ‘Spring’ Sonata in F Major, Op. 24, for piano and violin, performed from the edition of Joseph Joachim, presenting a later-19th-century approach to Beethoven’s Classical-era violin writing. The violin bow is a defining factor in performance, influencing articulation, phrasing, and tone. Over centuries, the bow has undergone modifications, expanding musical possibilities. The Baroque bow, with its convex curve and lighter weight, facilitates agile, dance-like strokes, while the modern bow enables longer sustained phrases and a broader dynamic range. This recital explores the evolution of bowing techniques and their influence on musical interpretation.

J.S. Bach’s Andante from the A Minor Sonata written c. 1720 exemplifies Baroque bowing ideals—dance-like strokes and inflected phrasing that mimic the breath of a singer. Although written for unaccompanied violin, this movement balances an upper and lower voice, requiring delicate management between both voices in a single bow stroke. The lighter, shorter, and convex rather than concave Baroque bow was central to achieving this effect, assisting nimble string crossings, double stops, voicing, and enabling dance pieces with room for living interpretation (Fried; Ahern). Because the bow produced a natural decrescendo, nuances in articulation and dynamics were often found within a single stroke, shaping polyphonic lines seamlessly.

Bach’s solo violin sonatas and partitas leave many aspects of interpretation to the performer. The structure and phrasing of the Andante reflect the improvisatory nature of Baroque performance, where musicians were expected to embellish melodies and shape phrases using their own personal discretion. Barbara Russano Hanning, author of the Concise History of Western Music discusses the Baroque in saying, “Baroque era written music was a platform for performance, not a fixed text” (Hanning 215). Accordingly, the sparse dynamic markings and limited musical instructions allow each performance to be unique. This Andante lends itself to varied interpretations even in duration and tempo, with recordings varying from Timothy Chooi’s brisk four-minute version to Hanh’s expansive six-and-a-half minute rendition. This substantial two-minute discrepancy in a short movement highlights the depth of interpretive freedom inherent in Baroque music. This recital features a tempo between the two, maintaining the movement’s natural flow akin to the rise and fall of speech. This interpretation emphasizes dynamic shaping, bow speed variations, and flexible tempo to create expressive contrast. This performance aims to remain stylistically faithful to Baroque ideals while allowing for personal musical expression.

Second on the program but originally published twenty years before Bach’s A Minor Sonata, Corelli’s Follia presents an opportunity to approach a Baroque-era piece using 20th-century bowing technique. The edition used for this performance is that of violinist Zino Francescatti, a 20th-century virtuoso whose interpretations are often described in terms such as being “based in logic, clarity, charm, and drama” (Westberg). His editorial style is notably clear, offering ample instructions regarding tempo changes, dynamics, and bowing. Unlike historical Baroque interpretations, Francescatti’s edition incorporates phrasing deliberately conceived to align with the more even balance of the modern bow. Additionally, Corelli’s Follia was originally intended to be performed with basso continuo, however, Francescatti’s edition replaces it with piano accompaniment, further modernizing the approach. Thus, this performance reflects a distinctly 20th-century interpretation of the piece, particularly in its use of bowing techniques.

This piece opens with the Follia chord progression theme, played dramatically and deliberately through long, heavy bow strokes that contrast with the lighter, more detached style typical of a Baroque bow, and incorporates notable vibrato. Historically, the balance point of the Baroque bow was closer to the frog, and the bow hair was approximately half as wide as today’s 12mm standard. Because the baroque bow is shorter, has less hair, and is unevenly-weighted, even this initial opening would have sounded less sustained than it does with a modern bow. As Nobes explains in The Strad, “Modern bow design and musical demands have encouraged power and continuity of sound” (Nobes). Overall, this sustainment and continuity differentiate Francescatti’s interpretation of Follia from Baroque-period approaches, and this performance embraces a full, powerful sound throughout.

The modern bow balances more evenly than the Baroque bow, so different nuances can be captured and techniques more common in post-Baroque periods are utilized. As Follia progresses into its variations, this performance incorporates techniques like sostenuto, détaché, martelé, and staccato, techniques that would not have been used in a historically informed Baroque performance, but are historically appropriate to Francescatti’s edition. This approach allows each variation to embody its own distinct character and sound. The blend of contemporary style with Baroque music creates space for dynamic and expressive contrast, while still working to preserve the dance-like energy of the original work. This performance highlights how a modern perspective can be used to approach an older composition in a way that both respects and transforms its dance-based origins.

In the final selection, Beethoven’s fifth violin sonata ‘Spring’, this performance takes inspiration from the work’s title, embracing its light, lyrical character. Though Beethoven himself did not title the piece, its cheerful and flowing melodies earned it the name after his death. Of Beethoven’s nine violin sonatas composed between 1797 and 1803, the ‘Spring’ Sonata is among the most well known. Written during Beethoven’s early period, the sonata conveys a more uplifting spirit than many of his later works, composed before the infamous hardships in his later life, including his loss of hearing. As Hanning notes, “Scholars have customarily divided Beethoven's works into three periods on the basis of style and chronology. During the first period, to about 1802, Beethoven assimilated the musical language of his time and found his own voice as a composer” (Hanning 371). In this early period, much of Beethoven’s writing is marked by a clean, transparent texture, reminiscent of Mozart’s style—under whom he studied briefly. His compositions feature clear melodic lines, balanced phrasing, and a lighter emotional tone. The ‘Spring’ Sonata exemplifies Beethoven’s emerging early voice, a character that became increasingly rare later in his career as he expanded to more dramatic writing.

The classical period (c. 1730-1815 [Hanning 302]) evolved alongside the Enlightenment, emphasizing clarity, evenness, balance, and pureness of sound. Hanning explains, “Classical music…possessed the qualities of noble simplicity, balance, perfection of form, diversity within unity, [and] seriousness of purpose” (Hanning 371). Accordingly, Beethoven’s ‘Spring’ Sonata reflects these ideals, moving away slightly from the busyness of the Baroque and instead allowing the violin and piano to trade melodic lines in conversation, enhanced by specific and sudden dynamic shifts. A listener might expect a crescendo leading to a fortissimo, only to find it instead resolves into a subito piano as the line continues in a different voice. The interplay between the voices highlights that this is a true sonata for violin and piano, and showcases varied musical characters across movements.

This performance of ‘Spring’ further aligns bowing and style with the period in which it was written, using historical bowing interpretations and respecting Classical-era performance practice. The Classical aesthetic of clarity, achieved through even articulation, phrasing, and tone production, marks a distinct shift from the more uneven and inflected style of the Baroque. The utilization of the bow in this performance of the ‘Spring’ Sonata parallels some similarities with bow use in this performance’s interpretation of Follia. Again, modern bows, with more even weight distribution than Baroque bows, enable greater use of techniques such as spiccato—a light, off-the-string bounce that the convex Baroque bow can not easily accommodate. Additionally, the longer and more balanced bow supports extended slurs, producing a more sustained, even line. More dramatic and lyrical bowing techniques, like sostenuto bowing, are particularly evident in the second movement, enhancing the dramatic shift as the violin enters on a D-flat rather than the expected D-natural. Meanwhile, the third movement emphasizes near-metronomic precision and clear, separate staccato articulation, achieved through controlled use of the bow’s balance point, closer to the middle in modern bows. This evenness and separation contrast with Baroque bowing practices, where fast notes were more often played near the heavier frog to take advantage of natural bow weight.

This edition of the ‘Spring’ Sonata was edited by Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), a Hungarian violinist and close friend of composer Johannes Brahms. Joachim, in addition to editing major violin works, co-wrote Violinschule (1905) with his student and biographer Andreas Moser. Known for his commitment to honoring composers' original intentions, Joachim nonetheless introduced noticeable changes to bowings compared to Beethoven’s initial text of the ‘Spring’ Sonata. In this violin method book, he discusses interpretation, fingerings, bowings, and approaches to phrasing across various works. Although the ‘Spring’ Sonata is not addressed directly, the insights Joachim offers on Beethoven’s violin pieces provide valuable performance guidance. When discussing Beethoven’s Romance in F Major, Op. 50, the book notes Beethoven’s sparse performance directions, and thus offers detailed instruction: “The solo violin [must be] powerful and energetic with martellé strokes. In order to appear natural to the passage marked piano, this must be initiated a bar earlier by a diminuendo in the accompaniment” (Joachim, Moser 213). This excerpt reflects the kind of detailed guidance found throughout Violinschule, where explanations are consistently accompanied by edited versions of the works discussed.

Joachim’s edition of the ‘Spring’ Sonata features slight articulation differentiations from Beethoven’s original manuscript. For example, in measures 77 through 83 of the first movement, Beethoven marks separate bows for this passage, while Joachim’s editing inserts hooks, maintaining a single bow stroke. This may suggest a longer line, attaching notes for a longer phrase feel. A similar trend appears in the second movement, in measure 12, where Beethoven separates the downbeat dotted quarter note and the following eighth note, while Joachim connects them into a paused but continuous bow stroke. Differences such as these leave room for discussion about whether Joachim’s edits reflect performance practices already common in Beethoven’s time, or whether they represent a slightly modernized approach. It is possible that Joachim, with his deep knowledge of violin technique, aimed to adapt these works for the modern violinist or to add subtle nuance and personality to his interpretations. Whatever the case, each movement of the ‘Spring’ Sonata encapsulates a range of techniques that showcase the beauty and versatility of the violin. This sonata highlights many distinct tasks of the violin bow: sudden dynamic changes, long lyrical phrasing, and bright, lively passages played with clarity reminiscent of a spring day.

This programme of Bach, Corelli, and Beethoven highlights the evolution of bowing techniques and bow-based interpretative approaches across different musical periods. It explores the subtleties of Baroque phrasing through Bach's Andante, emphasizes a 20th-century bowing approach in a Baroque context courtesy of Francescatti through Corelli’s Follia, and embraces the Classical-era evenness and stylistic elements shaped by Joseph Joachim’s editorial influence in Beethoven’s ‘Spring’ Sonata. Historically-informed performance practice is essential for violinists aiming to present music accurately; this recital seeks to adhere to the intended and appropriate bowing styles throughout each work.

Works Cited

Ahern, Tricia. “Baroque Bow Basics with Tafelmusik’s Tricia Ahern.” Violinist.Com, 11 Apr. 2016, www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20164/18483/.

Fried, Miriam. “Modern versus Baroque Violin Bow.” Modern versus Baroque Violin Bow, iClassical Academy, 3 Oct. 2022, iclassical-academy.com/modern-versus-baroque-violin-bow/.

Jaquim, Joseph, and Andreas Moser. Violinschule. Vol. 3, N. Simrock, 1905, Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.
Nobes, Pauline. “Playing Baroque and Classical.” The Strad, The Strad, 10 Sept. 2021, www.thestrad.com/playing/long-read-playing-baroque-and-classical/13630.article.

Russano Hanning, Barbara. Concise History of Western Music. Norton Books, W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., https://nerd.wwnorton.com/nerd/73552/r/goto/cfi/148!/4, Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.

Westberg, Megan. “Essential Historical Recordings: Violinist Zino Francescatti’s Virtuosity Extended from the Stage to the Page.” Strings Magazine, Strings Magazine, 26 May 2021, stringsmagazine.com/essential-historical-recordings-zino-francescatti/.