Telling a musical story: violinist James Ehnes on the challenges and rewards of his new recording of Bach’s violin concertos with Canada’s NAC Orchestra

James Ehnes & NAC Orchestra – National Arts Centre, Canada (Photo: Curtis Perry)

Violinist James Ehnes has a long relationship with Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra having made his debut with them in 1993, and he was artist in residence from 2021 to 2024. James also has a long relationship with the music of Bach, recording the complete Partitas and Sonatas in 2000 (re-recording them in 2020/21 on Onyx), and the Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord in 2006 on Analekta. Now these two strands have come together with the release last month of his recording of Bach’s complete violin concertos with the NAC Orchestra on Analekta. The disc includes not only Bach’s well-known concertos in A minor and E minor, the Double Concerto and the Concerto for Violin, Flute, and Harpsichord in A minor, but also four concertos reconstructed from Bach’s harpsichord concertos.

I recently chatted to James, whilst he was in Adelaide, about his new disc, styles of Bach performance and how getting older has given him perspective, reconstructing Bach’s lost violin concertos, differences between live and studio recording and finding the ideal recording process, and much more.

James explains that he always hoped to have a chance to record Bach’s violin concertos, but for him, most successful recordings are those where everything peaks at the right moment (and he points out that this is true of live performance also). He has had a long relationship with both the NAC and the NAC Orchestra, having been artist in residence and toured with them. The last decade has been particularly special, so this seemed like the perfect time to capture something of that relationship. James knows the players well and the concertmaster, Yosuke Kawasaki (who joins James for the Double Concerto) is a friend from school. With the orchestra, James feels that he has as close, open and transparent relationship as possible which allows all to be active participants in the music. And they are supported by a great team at the NAC too, whilst the recording’s producer worked on James’ first Bach recordings.

Regarding the style of playing Bach, James feels that getting older has given him perspective; the way you are told that something should be, changes over the years. He has found this liberating, he no longer feels that he has to play in a particular way but that he can concentrate on telling a musical story. This is even more complicated with Baroque music, and whilst historical performance practice is important, he also feels that musicians can learn from performances of all ages. He mentions that we tend to have a recency bias, feeling that what we have just been told is best. This has probably always been true, and Mendelssohn probably felt this about the way he performed Bach. We can imagine Mendelssohn’s performances of Bach being different to those of Bach himself but no less compelling. This is timeless music that always speaks through a prism of our own time.

He feels that there is a parallel to the new music world, where there were times in the 20th century when composers felt obligated to write in a certain way, but there is less of that now. People can be themselves, and be appreciated for what they can offer. It is similar with Bach, which he has heard described as zombie music, i.e. impossible to kill! There are now so many ways to perform Bach and he does not focus on being right, but on telling a compelling story to listeners.

He has tried to expose himself to a lot of different performance perspectives but feels no responsibility to play Bach the way someone else feels that it ought to be. He sees his role as being that of playing the music the way it speaks to him. This means that there will be differences each time he plays the music. There is a risk, and there will always be those who disagree with him. He has seen Bach performances that were slow and heavy, light and fast, metronomic, and free. All were different and none were right. As he has got older, he has become less paralysed by thinking that this performance is his ultimate one. Simply, a performance is just the way he felt the music at the time.

The disc, of course, includes the concertos that James grew up with, what he calls the big three. But over the years he discovered that there were other concertos. He knew the D minor concerto in its surviving form as a keyboard concerto and it was pointed out to him about its origins as a violin concerto, something he finds very convincing. He became fascinated and rather got into the archaeology/detective work involved in how Bach would take a piece and then transform it, and there are plenty of surviving examples of this. With Bach, we see his finished product as logical and inevitable, but going back to an earlier version is harder, what James refers to as reviolinifying the harpsichord solo. But it was interesting the way the concertos came alive as violin concertos. The Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052R, is a bigger work than the A minor concerto and is more virtuosic.

James admits that he is a bit of a completist, if he likes one he wants all of them, so if you do three or four concertos then why not all of them? He did not want to give the impression that the reconstructed concertos are not important or that he did not like them. Also, having the concertos all in one place gives an interesting overview of Bach’s violin concerto writing, and a better sense of their breadth. There is great variety here, showcasing four different Bachs – the intellectual, the virtuoso, the emotional and the songwriter.

When it comes to recording Bach, there is one more project that is just a gleam in James’ eye at the moment. He has enjoyed performing the Brandenburg Concertos and would love to record them with the NAC Orchestra as the players are friends, amazing both as people and as musicians.

Other recordings in the works include a set of Brahms’ sonatas which have been recorded but not released yet, and there is a fair amount of chamber music from James’ Seattle Chamber Music Society which has been recorded but not released yet. When we talk about recording (and he has released a significant number of discs over the years), he refers to recording as a compulsion. He admits that the recording process is not strictly enjoyable and is stressful, but it is valuable experience and he has learned so much from it, immensely valuable lessons about his own playing. He admits that in a strategic sense, his recording career has not been handled practically. He tends to record what he wants, taking up projects as they come, if they feel right. Sometimes this means his discs cluster together, rather than being spread out logically. Having a recording schedule would be ideal, but this is not the reason he makes recordings. 

At the end of his life, the conductor Sir Andrew Davis made recordings of pieces that were important to him, this means that James, at short notice, recorded with Sir Andrew. James did the recordings because they felt right, and admits that they might not have happened at all if he had worried about his schedule.

James has recorded most of the major repertoire, but some things come up again and he finds he has something different to say. He talks about going back to his favourite musicians and listening to their recordings from different periods. If he records a work again, it is not because he is dissatisfied with the earlier disc, but because the new recording is simply a different picture. The old recording still has value, he was a different person back then, but different now.

Regarding live recording, he admits that this is tricky partly because this means different things at different times. A live recording with an orchestra might be a composite from recordings made at the dress rehearsal and three performances, plus a patch session, and at other times it might be a pure live recording. Some pieces lend themselves to one process or the other, and he has no preferred process. Whilst there is something to be gained from live performance, he feels that having time in the studio with a producer with whom you can work closely means that you can find special things. Sometimes real intimacy is hard, trying to create intimacy for ears in wildly different places; with a live concerto recording the microphone is two feet away from the soloist, whilst the back row of the balcony is 100s of feet away, giving a very different listening experience. Then again, a studio recording can get caught up in the weeds, whilst you get ineffable feedback from live performance.

At Seattle Chamber Music Society they do the dress rehearsal with the microphones on, which gives them a chance to listen. They learn a lot from listening back, this is the last stage of the artists’ growth, so that when it comes to the concert they feel they know what to achieve and how.

James Ehnes

When James and I spoke, he was in Adelaide having just flown in from Melbourne, as part of a large tour of Australia and New Zealand, with his wife and children with him. They started in New Zealand on 18 February, and the tour covers Auckland, Tasmania, Sydney Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide as well as some vacation at the end before flying back to the USA on 20 April! He loves Australia and New Zealand, having been travelling there for 17 years, the countries have been good to him and it is lovely to come back.

JS Bach: The Complete Violin Concertos

James Ehnes violin | Yosuke Kawasaki concertmaster/violin | Jessica Linnebach associate concertmaster/violin | Charles Hamann oboe | Joanna G’froerer flute | Luc Beauséjour harpsicord
NAC Orchestra

Concerto for Solo Violin in A minor, BWV 1041
Concerto for Solo Violin in E Major, BWV 1042
Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043
Concerto for Violin, Flute, and Harpsichord in A minor, BWV 1044
Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV 1060R
Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052R
Concerto in G minor, BWV 1056R
Concerto for Three Violins in D Major, BWV 1064R
ANALEKTA