The French violinist David Grimal (born in 1973) first came to my attention via his position as artistic director of the conductor-less orchestra Les Dissonances. Later on I heard his 1999 recording of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas on the Transart label, but missed his 2008 remake for Ambrosie. In 2021 he revisited the cycle yet again in the studio, elevating him to “Three-Timer” solo Bach status alongside Yehudi Menuhin and Christian Tetzlaff. The resultant recordings are lavishly yet tastefully packaged here, in accordance with La Dolce Volta’s first-class production values.
In a frank booklet interview, Grimal describes his 1999 traversal as “totally reckless, in the surge of youth…with great freedom, full of carefree enthusiasm.” The second recording paralleled a personal crisis in the 35-year-old musician’s life, “a moment of introspection, navigating between the conscious and the unconscious.” While Grimal views his newest attempt as “the hardest, the one that gave me the most trouble,” he also speaks of the timbral and resonant advantages of using pure gut strings this time around, together with a lighter Baroque bow that lends itself to a wider range of expressive possibilities.
Comparative listening does indeed reveal interpretive differences, although not necessarily as Grimal describes. For example, I hear nothing carefree or reckless about Grimal’s rather careful, measured, and legato-based 1999 A minor sonata Fuga. The 2008 version is comparatively brisk, skittish, and anything but introspective. By contrast, the latest recording retains 2008’s animated pace, but with more variety in articulation. The exuberance heard in both of the earlier G minor sonata Presto movements gives way to more thoughtful harmonic pointing and care with dynamics. Grimal’s 1999 B minor Bourrée dances off the page with gusto, in contrast to the choppy agogic phrasing nine years later. Here Grimal’s short phrase groupings are much more of a piece.
Given that Grimal is not one to linger or to bask in long sustained phrases, his performance of the monumental D minor Chaconne times out quicker than many, and actually shaves off minutes from his earlier readings. Yet it hardly sounds rushed or headlong in how Grimal imbues the music with more harmonic tension, fluidity of pacing, and long-lined architecture than before.
Charting Grimal’s evolution in the big C major Fuga proved no less fascinating. In 1999 his studied slowness was blemished by occasional intonation lapses. No tuning issues affected the faster, overly inflected 2008 remake. Pulling the tempo back, Grimal now favors a smooth and almost reedy sonority as he deftly and thoughtfully delineates the Fuga’s exposition and long episodes. Interestingly, both the 1999 and 2021 E major Preludes contain slightly self-aware breath marks and tapered phrases absent from the more forthright 2008 traversal.
Although Grimal’s solo Bach may not offer the consistency of vision and striking individual profile characterizing my reference versions, he clearly has something to say. But will Grimal have more to say in 15 years, when he records his fourth Sonatas and Partitas cycle?
