Jeffrey Hall wrote:

>What is a good choice for Bach sonatas and partitas, Grumiaux or Milstein?

Well, first of all, Milstein's Chaconne always makes me cry ... but how can
you select just performance? They are SO different from one another.  Both
Grumiaux and Milstein are superb, as are about fifty others. Borrow them
from the library, buy sets used and listen to as many different sets as you
can. One excellent and strange set is by Sergiu Luca who was experimenting
in a historical way ... and I have noticed that his set is inexpensive and
may already have been remaindered. We bought it when it was in LP and I
almost wore it out. That is a VERY different performance and it inspired me
at the time to do my own experimentation.

There is no ONE best way. These works are full of space for many individual
interpretations. That's one of the things that make them so vital.

Mimi Ezust