Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who know me say I'm a super music fan. Yup. I liked it well enough to get a violin and dig in, especially to Bach. For violin I have low talent, started too late, and didn't practice enough, but, still I made it through the Preludio of the E Major Partita and the D Major center section of the Chaconne. From all the possible analyses I've seen of Bach, finally I come down on just one core point: He was one heck…
This piece is simply breathtaking, I find this version on guitar more expressive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNEnzNHTkd8
Generally he very much gets it about the sense or meaning of the music, at least as I understand it.
I wondered what he was going to do for the last parts of the first D Minor section, and he was really good! There he made good use of some of the advantages of a guitar to make the notes sharp (with correct intonation! -- easier on guitar than violin!) and distinct in a musically appropriate way.
For the first parts of the central D Major section, he got the slow, delicate, maybe even pleading sweetness very nicely. As that section grew in passion, there are many triplets; these can be made to sound more passionate by being insistent, and he did well with that.
There are places in the music where the music jumps quickly down an octave or two, and, really, usually there needs to be some connection or legato between the two -- sometimes he does this and sometimes not. An interpretation of the jump is that the lower notes are a fast answer or response to the upper ones; then it's good to have the two sound connected. Or, the music is a diagram of someone in doubt and considering something; the upper notes are the current guesses, and the lower notes are a fast return to thinking the person is more confident about.
Maybe that music is like a guy trying to woo a girl and thinking (A) I really want to take her to that five star French restaurant BUT (B) I might look like irresponsible with money; (A) I really want to show her I care BUT (B) it's important to be careful with money; etc.
To me the climax of the piece is at the end of the central D Major section; have to play on all four strings of the violin, and the highest notes on the E string can result in a soaring impression, rising to something glorious -- Bach was not short on passion. There is a lot to interpret in those last few bars of that section. There the guitar might have tried again.
Just after the end of the D Major section is the final section, in D Minor, and the beginning of that section is confused as a catharsis or release from the soaring passion just before (Bach was something of an applied human emotional psychologist, that is, a good artist!). Well, for that catharsis, the guitarist might have tried again.
At the beginning, with just the D Minor tonic chord, he could have used more legato, made the sounds last a little longer, still within what a guitar can do. That is, clearly indicate for the listener that chord because it is central to the whole piece.
There's a story of a guitarist in the audience of a concert. He happened to be sitting next to composer Castelnuovo-Tedesco, known to be a man of few words. Before the concert, the guitarist said to the composer "The Bach Chaconne sure is difficult to play." The composer said nothing but when the concert was over said "The Bach Chaconne is the greatest piece of music ever written". I wouldn't argue with that. Playing it, even while learning to play it and playing it badly, is fun beyond belief -- get to replace own commonly limited voice with that of a violin, piano, guitar, or even a full orchestra (e.g., Stokowski) and Bach's music to scream out to the heavens the passion of the human spirit -- great fun!
Bach was one heck of a musician!