After the sonatas of Bach and the sonatas of Ysaÿe, Jassen Todorov again plays Bach – his Partitas. Described by The Strad as “an outstanding violinist… of rare technical ability…”, his performances and recordings are always memorable events: concert performances of works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Paganini, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Ysae, Bartok, Glazunov, Berg and Shostakovich, etc., participations in competitions and festivals, recordings and numerous participations in CBC, NBC, Bayerische Rundfunk, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, etc. Along with his concert activity, Jassen Todorov is a respected violin teacher. From 2002 he served as the teaching assistant to Professor Oleh Krysa at the Eastman School in Rochester, and since 2003 he is a Profesor of Violin at San Francisco State University in the USA. He is also Visiting Professor at Xinjiang Arts University and Qimingxing School of Music, China.
The three partitas recorded by Jassen Todorov form a part of a collection of six solo pieces for violin: three sonatas and three partitas. They were completed in 1720 but were first circulated in manuscript and remained unpublished until 1802. Over the years there has been much speculation to the identity of their first performer. According to some researchers this is Johann Georg Pisendel, according to others Jean Baptiste Volumier, or Joseph Spiess. Some even suppose that this might have been Bach himself, who, besides being a pianist, was also a talented violinist. But the partitas became really popular after they were performed by Ferdinand David (Leipzig, 1840) and Joseph Joachim (London, 1847). Since then they are in the repertoire of all outstanding violinists and they represent a standard of performance mastery.