Guitarist Jason Vieaux Releases 'Bach Volume 2: Works For Violin' Out Today

Today, GRAMMY Award-winning classical guitarist Jason Vieaux releases Bach Volume 2: Works for Violin on Azica Records.

A follow up to his critically acclaimed 2009 Azica album, Bach Volume 1: Works for Lute, Volume 2 completes Vieaux's Bach cycle with J. S. Bach's Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006, which is both the Violin Partita No. 3 and Lute Suite No. 4; Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005; and Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001.

Vieaux says, "Indeed, it's been well over a decade since the 2009 issue of three lute works of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Bach Vol. 1, Works For Lute, was out on Azica. The idea Azica and I had back then was that there would eventually be a Volume 2, which would complete the 'lute' set by making a 'violin' record that included BWV 1006... Well, 'eventually' turned out to be about 13 years, 2 kids, 700 more gigs, and over 8 hours of commercial releases later.

"Appointments, marriage, raising kids, care for aging parents, the departure of so many important and dear people, massive changes to the music business, whatever it may be... one of the great things about Bach's music is that it's always just there, for us to continually explore. His music doesn't need anything. It is not only comforting and inspiring in its musical greatness, it's humbling in how his notes, phrases, structures, compositional decisions, harmonic details, etc, are seemingly all-knowing (divine) and expressive (mortal) all at once, which is always a great respite in such a turbulent world. Every note gives the feeling that Bach has totally been there, done that, but somehow 1000 times more.

"I suppose his music can serve as a reflection of a personal moment, experience, a soundtrack to one's life, but I never hear it that way. Bach is completely timeless, ageless, 'style'-less. It represents what 'great' or 'awesome' actually means... With Bach, I always try to just play what's there; the difficult thing with Bach's music on guitar is that there's a daunting, awesome, rewarding, gratifying amount of 'there' there. So, I hope that keeps growing, developing, changing, as my navigation of the guitar as an instrument continues to do the same. And I hope you will enjoy this latest snapshot of where I'm at on that particular journey."

About Jason Vieaux
Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, "among the elite of today's classical guitarists" (Gramophone), is described by NPR as "perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation."

Jason's multiple appearances for San Francisco Performances, Caramoor Festival, Ravinia Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, 92nd Street Y, Domaine-Forget Festival, and many others, have helped to cement his reputation as one of the world's leading guitarists. Other overseas performance venues include Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Seoul Arts Center, Shanghai Concert Hall, Sala Sao Paolo, and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Jason Vieaux has performed as soloist with over 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Toronto, Houston, Nashville, and Orchestra of St. Luke's, working with renowned conductors such as Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Hans Graf, Giancarlo Guererro, Jahja Ling, Gerard Schwarz, and Michael Stern.

In 2021, Jason Vieaux performed the premiere recording of a new solo work, Four Paths of Light, a new solo guitar suite dedicated to Vieaux by jazz legend Pat Metheny, for Metheny's 2021 Grammy-nominated album Road To The Sun. Jason's passion for new music has also fostered premieres from Jeff Beal, Avner Dorman, Vivian Fung, Pierre Jalbert, Jonathan Leshnoff, David Ludwig, Mark Mancina, Dan Visconti, and many more. Of his Grammy-winning 2014 solo album Play, The Huffington Post declared that Play is "part of the revitalized interest in the classical guitar."

Vieaux's multiple appearances over the years with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Strings Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, etc., have forged his reputation as an in-demand chamber musician. Regular collaborators include the Escher String Quartet, Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, Grammy-winning harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, and accordion/bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro.

As a teacher, Vieaux co-founded the guitar department at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2011 (with David Starobin), and has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music for 25 years. Jason's online Guitar School for Artistworks Inc. has hundreds of subscribers from all over the world. He plays a guitar by Gernot Wagner, 2013, made in Frankfurt. Learn more at www.jasonvieaux.com.