A journey into the world of solo violin Every musician encounters a special piece that sticks in their mind and stimulates their artistic drive in life. When Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme was dedicated to me I began the journey of exploration into the world of solo violin repertoire – a journey of ultimate solitude and freedom. Yet while a solo violin is a very minimalistic setting, paradoxically it allows one to create a complete orchestra on its own. Thus my challenge was to distance myself from the violin as a melody instrument and explore how to let these pieces sound polyphonically, by highlighting the bass line, harmony, rhythm, as well as the melody. For the transcriptions, I found it primarily important to respect the character of the original organ pieces, while utilizing all violinistic possibilities - colors, dynamics, shapes - in order to give new dimensions to those pieces “reborn” by Dekoninck’s hands. This process also led me to rediscover Bach’s Chaconne BWV 1004, seeing it with new eyes. And being able to perform all these works on a historical violin by Hendrik Jacobs (Amsterdam, c.1690), with its deep magical sound in the lower strings and brilliance in the high strings, has certainly given extra profundity to fulfilling this vision. Last but not least... I would like to give thanks to all the people who helped me in making this CD: the Flemish government and Belgium Sensation Syonan (Japan) for their financial support, Dirk De Greef of Etcetera records for his enthusiasm, Wim Vereeken for the rental of the church with its beautiful acoustic, Rainer Arndt for the wonderful recording and mastering, Tine De Wilde for catching my inner “Wachet auf” with her artistic photography, Daniel Boothe and Laurent Neyens for revising my English and Dutch text, and my colleagues and friends who gave of their opinions and ideas in order to deepen my performance. And above all, to the composer Wouter Dekoninck for creating these unique pieces for (baroque) violin. May this CD inspire you and may these compositions and transcriptions become the beloved repertoire of many violinists! July 2023 Halle, Belgium Madoka Nakamaru