Chloe Chua & Ye Lin play Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, BWV 1043

Bach’s Double Violin Concerto was probably written around 1730, when he was working in Leipzig. This is the only concerto Bach wrote for two violins – and it’s one of very few written throughout history for a pair of violin soloists. The outer two movements show Vivaldi’s influence, with high-spirited fugal writing, while the unusual addition of a second soloist dials up the excitement. The lively first movement gives way to a more delicate counterpoint between the two soloists in the beautiful central Largo. Here, the second violin opens with a beautiful, song-like melody, which is then passed between the two violins. As the dreamy melody seamlessly unfurls over the course of the five-minute movement, Bach strips back the string orchestra accompaniment to simple chords which gently propel the music forward. Robert Schumann once said: “In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune no one else has thought of.” In the work’s most famous movement, the Largo, Bach managed to create just that: a melody that feels like something half-recalled from childhood and a balm for the soul in uncertain times. (Elizabeth Davis) COPYRIGHT NOTICE: No part of this video may be reproduced anywhere in any form without the permission of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and Orchestra, BWV 1043 (c. 1730) 0:00 I. Vivace 4:28 II. Largo, ma non tanto 11:42 III. Allegro Singapore Symphony Orchestra Chloe Chua, violin Ye Lin, violin Darrell Ang, conductor Recorded live at the Esplanade Concert Hall (Singapore), 4 Feb 2021 CHLOE CHUA @ChloeChuaviolinist Young violinist Chloe Chua’s meteoric rise on the classical music concert stage culminated in being awarded the joint 1st prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists. The 14-year-old from Singapore had also garnered the top prize at the 24th Andrea Postacchini Violin Competition, and the 3rd prize at the 2017 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition. She has also been awarded prizes at Thailand International Strings Competition (Junior Category Grand Prize), Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition (1st Prize, Junior 2017, 3rd Prize Junior 2015). She has been enrolled in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts School of Young Talents (NAFA) since she was four, and is currently under the tutelage of Yin Ke, leader of their Strings programme. Her stunning maturity and musicality has captured the hearts of audience around the world, and her performances have taken her to concert halls across the U.K, Thailand, Italy, Germany, China, Saudi Arabia, USA and Singapore, and in festivals such as the New Virtuosi Queenswood Mastercourse, Atlanta Festival Academy and the Singapore Violin Festival. More recently, she has performed with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, China Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, AFA festival Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Russian National Youth Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Yuri Bashmet, Kammerorchester Basel conducted by Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli and the China Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Xia Xiaotang. She performs on a violin by Peter Guarneri of Venice, 1729, on generous loan from the Rin Collection. YE LIN Ye Lin started learning the violin at the age of five. She attended primary and middle schools attached to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she studied with renowned violinists Professor Shi-Xiang Zhang and Fang Lei. Ye Lin made her solo debut with the Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra when she was 12. Ye Lin was a prize winner in the 1998 China National Violin Competition, and in the 9th International Competition for Young Violinists in Lublin, Poland in 2003. A National Arts Council-Conservatory music scholar, Ye Lin graduated from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, where she studied violin performance with Qian Zhou. At the conservatory, she became the first winner of the inaugural Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concerto Competition in 2004. The following year, she won First Prize in the Violin Open Category of the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition. In 2006, she was selected to study at the Peabody Institute at John Hopkins University as an exchange student where she studied with Victor Danchenko. After joining the SSO in 2008, Ye Lin continues to be an active chamber musician. She performs frequently with her string quartet and piano trio at the Esplanade Recital Studio and the Victoria Concert Hall. Ye Lin has collaborated in chamber performances with pianist Albert Tiu, the Stradivari Quartet, and violinists Thomas Zehetmair, Peter Hanson, Alina Ibragimova, and others. Since 2003 she has been the acting concertmaster of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra. Ye Lin plays on an 1862 Enrico Ceruti from the Rin collection.