Kavakos’s stylistic sensitivities bring an element of decorative fantasy to the naked urtext, as would have occurred in the hands of any skilled player of the period. He uses vibrato very sparingly and with exquisite subtlety as a microcosmic timbral shading, and employs the bow...with a deftness and lightness of touch more suggestive of a Baroque original.

The cleanness of Kavakos’s playing isn’t accompanied by a dry academic style. He finds subtle ways to hold our interest, and above all he succeeds in another aim he set out to achieve, letting the listener hear Bach rather than the violinist. Nonetheless, where stops are prominent, as in the Grave that opens Sonata No. 2, the way he divides the chord can be startling.

There’s an excess of effortlessness. Kavakos controls large sweeping phrases, conscientiously shaded with hierarchy.

From the keen attack of the Preludio of the Partita No 3 in E major, Kavakos lays out his stall. It’s one of the most virtuosic, technically dazzling accounts of Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin since Heifetz recorded them for posterity in the 1950s.

Kavakos’s sound is intense, silken, mercurial – a modern, characterful performance aware of history, playful in its ornamentation, but without exaggeration. The recording is spacious and resonant...There are as many ways to perform this music as there are top violinists...but Kavakos’s fire and grace take some beating.