J. S. Bach: Partita No 2 in D minor

Join us for the first lunchtime concert in our online festival series featuring Artistic Director Christopher White performing J. S. Bach: Partita No 2 in D minor. 

Programme:

J. S. Bach, Partita No 2 in D minor BWV 1004: 

I. Allemande

II. Corrente

III. Sarabande

IV. Giga

V. Ciaconne 

Christopher White, violin

Biography:

Christopher White is a London born violinist who studied at the Royal College of Music, London, where he won many prizes and left with one of the most coveted awards, the Dove Prize. Further awards enabled him to continue his studies at the Banff Centre in Canada and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.

He has studied with many distinguished violinists both in North America and England, including Josef Gingold, Jaime Laredo, Thomas Brandis, Rodney Friend and Erich Gruenberg.

Christopher has been concertmaster with a number of orchestras both in England and Europe, alongside a varied performing career as soloist and chamber musician. His solo CD was released in 1999, featuring solo violin works by Bach, Bartok and Ysaye, as well as a CD of the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas with pianist Melanie Reinhard. Further recordings were made with Die Taschenphilharmonie where Christopher was the first violin in Mahler Symphony No. 4 and “Lieder lines fahrenden Gesellen” (chamber version) and Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals, recently distributed widely in Germany by Die Zeit.

Since returning to the UK in 2003, Christopher has held posts as Resident Violinist at Rugby School and Head of Strings at Uppingham School. He now enjoys a varied career of teaching and performing, as well as being a well-respected piano technician. Since its formation in 1998, his piano Trio Opus 3, has received critical acclaim in Germany, Switzerland and the UK and has performed in venues such as the Tonhalle Zurich, St. James’ Piccadilly, St. Martin in the Fields and Charterhouse. Christopher is also the Artistic Director of the Great Bowden Music Fest founded in 2014. His recent recordings of the complete Beethoven Violin and Piano Sonatas with pianist Melanie Reinhard, will be released by Willowhayne Records later in 2020 to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

Christopher plays on a Giuseppe Guarneri violin, dated 1707.

“White’s tone was superbly rich on the lower strings in Chausson’s glorious Poeme” (The Strad)