Recordings of the Partitas were vetted last year on this list if anyone cares to look them up. As I recall, last year some significant contributor raved about the Milstein recordings, and 16 year old Hilary Hahn's were not considered among the finest (personally I treasure them, but then again I'm in love with her). But I thought I'd quote from my favorite pundit, Jim Svejda, "More than any other important violinist since Fritz Kreisler, the late Arthur Grumiaux created the impression of a very great musician who only happened to play the violin. Although far more technically reliable than Kreisler ... Grumiaux was completely indifferent to virtuosity for its own sake. His mission in life was to illuminate great music rather than dazzle an audience. Recorded in the early 1960's, Grumiaux's versions of the solo Partitas and Sonatas are very dazzling from both a musical and technical point of view. No other recordings reveal the music's structural bones quite so clearly or do it with such an easy, natural grace. Except for those of Mark Kaplan. If this extraordinary musician dressed as preposterously as Nigel Kennedy or indulged in the stage antics of Joshua Bell or Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, then he would probably be far better known, since he plays circles around all of them. His recordings of the Sonatas and Partitas (Mitch Miller Music 14630) are the most musical since Grumiaux's and are marginally better played." On a personal note, I recently heard Nogotula Ngwenyama play the E-minor partita on her chosen instrument, the viola. I thought her overall performance was quite fine, although I confess it was the first time I had heard an entire recital performed on viola. However, clearly she struggled a bit with the partita. Since she played other works (e.g. by Kreisler) that were seemingly more technically challenging- or at least more dazzling- with consummate mastery, it gave me some appreciation for how difficult these pioneering works by Bach must be. Larry Sherwood [log in to unmask]