Chris Thile's Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2—on which he performs Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004; Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005; and Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006—is due November 7. For his second recording of Bach Violin Sonatas and Partitas, 12 years after the first volume, the mandolin virtuoso opted for a more personal approach, allowing himself to take liberties with the scores, which he recorded in multiple, somewhat untraditional, locations of personal significance. Nonesuch Store orders include an autographed print while they last. Thile will perform works by Bach and more on tour this fall and spring.
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Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile’s Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2 is due November 7, 2025, on Nonesuch Records. The two-LP album comprises Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004; Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005; and Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006. The album is available to pre-order here, including in the Chris Thile Store and the Nonesuch Store, where orders include a limited-edition print autographed by Thile.
For his second recording of Bach Violin Sonatas and Partitas, twelve years after the first volume, Chris Thile opted for a more personal approach to the revered master composer’s works. This time, he allowed himself to take liberties with the scores, which he recorded in multiple, somewhat untraditional, locations of personal significance: Reservoir Studios and Tompkins Square Park in New York City; Farrell Recital Hall at Murray State University in Murray, KY; and Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN. Two movements are available today—Menuets I and II from Partita No. 3 in E major and the Giga from Partita No. 2 in D minor—along with a performance video for the latter movement, directed by Matthew Edginton, which you can watch here:
Thile will perform works by Bach, along with other material, during an extensive international solo US tour this fall through spring 2026 (exact dates below). Six newly announced early April shows, in the northeast US and Ohio, are available for general sale beginning Friday, September 19, at 10am local time. See below for details or visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
Thile says in his liner note, “Volume 1, which contained the first three of the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, came out in 2013, and though I’m still proud of it, I can hear that I spent most of its development and execution worrying about whether Bach would like it ... not the kind of concern I usually harbor when making music, original or otherwise.
“The process of becoming a person who plays Bach is extraordinarily rewarding. My mentor, Edgar Meyer, has shown me and a whole lot of us that. And we’ll always be in the middle of that process,” he continues. “You practice Bach, like you practice yoga. Because it makes your life better. Because it makes the world around you seem like a better, happier place. Because communing with something THAT beautiful, made by a human being, continuing to be made and enjoyed by so many human beings, makes you proud to be human.
“And so you practice it. As often as you can, everywhere you go. Your living room. Hotel room. Onstage before the rest of the band shows up for soundcheck. In an empty corner of an airport after a cancelled flight ... the reason this record exists is that I love practicing Bach, and I wanted to try and share how that ongoing process feels and sounds to me,” Thile concludes. “Would he like it? Though I was tempted to capitalize ‘he’ just now, I’m trying not to care. Do I like it? Yes.”
Thile’s other Nonesuch releases include a duo album with guitarist Michael Daves, two records with bassist Edgar Meyer (one of which won a Grammy), a Bach album with Yo-Yo Ma and Meyer, a duet album with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, and the T Bone Burnett–produced soundtrack to the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. He was featured on Brad Mehldau’s Elliott Smith songbook album, Ride into the Sun, released this past August.
As a soloist, Thile has released seven previous albums—most recently Laysongs, an album featuring six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. He spent his formative years as a member of the Grammy Award–winning, multi-platinum selling band Nickel Creek, which reunited in 2014 for its highest-charting album to date, A Dotted Line, on Nonesuch. Nickel Creek subsequently released Celebrants in 2023. For four years, Thile hosted public radio favorite Live from Here with Chris Thile (formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion).
Thile has been performing his playfully ambitious biographical composition ATTENTION! (a narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra) around the US since 2023. It tells the true story of a young Thile meeting Carrie Fisher at a rooftop bar in San Diego, transforming that moment into a larger meditation on ambition, identity, and the art of performance. Additionally, he has been focused on the production of a new musical variety show, The Energy Curfew Music Hour. Created with Claire Coffee and featuring Punch Brothers, season one is available on Audible and all podcasting platforms. Season two will be released this fall (details to be announced soon).
Chris Thile’s 'Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2' Due November 7 on Nonesuch
Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile’s Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2 is due November 7, 2025, on Nonesuch Records. The two-LP album comprises Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004; Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005; and Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006. The album is available to pre-order here, including in the Chris Thile Store and the Nonesuch Store, where orders include a limited-edition print autographed by Thile.
For his second recording of Bach Violin Sonatas and Partitas, twelve years after the first volume, Chris Thile opted for a more personal approach to the revered master composer’s works. This time, he allowed himself to take liberties with the scores, which he recorded in multiple, somewhat untraditional, locations of personal significance: Reservoir Studios and Tompkins Square Park in New York City; Farrell Recital Hall at Murray State University in Murray, KY; and Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN. Two movements are available today—Menuets I and II from Partita No. 3 in E major and the Giga from Partita No. 2 in D minor—along with a performance video for the latter movement, directed by Matthew Edginton, which you can watch here:
Thile will perform works by Bach, along with other material, during an extensive international solo US tour this fall through spring 2026 (exact dates below). Six newly announced early April shows, in the northeast US and Ohio, are available for general sale beginning Friday, September 19, at 10am local time. See below for details or visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
Thile says in his liner note, “Volume 1, which contained the first three of the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, came out in 2013, and though I’m still proud of it, I can hear that I spent most of its development and execution worrying about whether Bach would like it ... not the kind of concern I usually harbor when making music, original or otherwise.
“The process of becoming a person who plays Bach is extraordinarily rewarding. My mentor, Edgar Meyer, has shown me and a whole lot of us that. And we’ll always be in the middle of that process,” he continues. “You practice Bach, like you practice yoga. Because it makes your life better. Because it makes the world around you seem like a better, happier place. Because communing with something THAT beautiful, made by a human being, continuing to be made and enjoyed by so many human beings, makes you proud to be human.
“And so you practice it. As often as you can, everywhere you go. Your living room. Hotel room. Onstage before the rest of the band shows up for soundcheck. In an empty corner of an airport after a cancelled flight ... the reason this record exists is that I love practicing Bach, and I wanted to try and share how that ongoing process feels and sounds to me,” Thile concludes. “Would he like it? Though I was tempted to capitalize ‘he’ just now, I’m trying not to care. Do I like it? Yes.”
Thile’s other Nonesuch releases include a duo album with guitarist Michael Daves, two records with bassist Edgar Meyer (one of which won a Grammy), a Bach album with Yo-Yo Ma and Meyer, a duet album with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, and the T Bone Burnett–produced soundtrack to the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. He was featured on Brad Mehldau’s Elliott Smith songbook album, Ride into the Sun, released this past August.
As a soloist, Thile has released seven previous albums—most recently Laysongs, an album featuring six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. He spent his formative years as a member of the Grammy Award–winning, multi-platinum selling band Nickel Creek, which reunited in 2014 for its highest-charting album to date, A Dotted Line, on Nonesuch. Nickel Creek subsequently released Celebrants in 2023. For four years, Thile hosted public radio favorite Live from Here with Chris Thile (formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion).
Thile has been performing his playfully ambitious biographical composition ATTENTION! (a narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra) around the US since 2023. It tells the true story of a young Thile meeting Carrie Fisher at a rooftop bar in San Diego, transforming that moment into a larger meditation on ambition, identity, and the art of performance. Additionally, he has been focused on the production of a new musical variety show, The Energy Curfew Music Hour. Created with Claire Coffee and featuring Punch Brothers, season one is available on Audible and all podcasting platforms. Season two will be released this fall (details to be announced soon).
Chris Thile’s 'Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2' Due November 7 on Nonesuch
Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile’s Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 2 is due November 7, 2025, on Nonesuch Records. The two-LP album comprises Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004; Sonata No. 3 in C major, BWV 1005; and Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006. The album is available to pre-order here, including in the Chris Thile Store and the Nonesuch Store, where orders include a limited-edition print autographed by Thile.
For his second recording of Bach Violin Sonatas and Partitas, twelve years after the first volume, Chris Thile opted for a more personal approach to the revered master composer’s works. This time, he allowed himself to take liberties with the scores, which he recorded in multiple, somewhat untraditional, locations of personal significance: Reservoir Studios and Tompkins Square Park in New York City; Farrell Recital Hall at Murray State University in Murray, KY; and Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN. Two movements are available today—Menuets I and II from Partita No. 3 in E major and the Giga from Partita No. 2 in D minor—along with a performance video for the latter movement, directed by Matthew Edginton, which you can watch here:
Thile will perform works by Bach, along with other material, during an extensive international solo US tour this fall through spring 2026 (exact dates below). Six newly announced early April shows, in the northeast US and Ohio, are available for general sale beginning Friday, September 19, at 10am local time. See below for details or visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
Thile says in his liner note, “Volume 1, which contained the first three of the Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, came out in 2013, and though I’m still proud of it, I can hear that I spent most of its development and execution worrying about whether Bach would like it ... not the kind of concern I usually harbor when making music, original or otherwise.
“The process of becoming a person who plays Bach is extraordinarily rewarding. My mentor, Edgar Meyer, has shown me and a whole lot of us that. And we’ll always be in the middle of that process,” he continues. “You practice Bach, like you practice yoga. Because it makes your life better. Because it makes the world around you seem like a better, happier place. Because communing with something THAT beautiful, made by a human being, continuing to be made and enjoyed by so many human beings, makes you proud to be human.
“And so you practice it. As often as you can, everywhere you go. Your living room. Hotel room. Onstage before the rest of the band shows up for soundcheck. In an empty corner of an airport after a cancelled flight ... the reason this record exists is that I love practicing Bach, and I wanted to try and share how that ongoing process feels and sounds to me,” Thile concludes. “Would he like it? Though I was tempted to capitalize ‘he’ just now, I’m trying not to care. Do I like it? Yes.”
Thile’s other Nonesuch releases include a duo album with guitarist Michael Daves, two records with bassist Edgar Meyer (one of which won a Grammy), a Bach album with Yo-Yo Ma and Meyer, a duet album with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, and the T Bone Burnett–produced soundtrack to the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. He was featured on Brad Mehldau’s Elliott Smith songbook album, Ride into the Sun, released this past August.
As a soloist, Thile has released seven previous albums—most recently Laysongs, an album featuring six original songs and three covers, all of which contextualize and banter with his ideas about spirituality. He spent his formative years as a member of the Grammy Award–winning, multi-platinum selling band Nickel Creek, which reunited in 2014 for its highest-charting album to date, A Dotted Line, on Nonesuch. Nickel Creek subsequently released Celebrants in 2023. For four years, Thile hosted public radio favorite Live from Here with Chris Thile (formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion).
Thile has been performing his playfully ambitious biographical composition ATTENTION! (a narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra) around the US since 2023. It tells the true story of a young Thile meeting Carrie Fisher at a rooftop bar in San Diego, transforming that moment into a larger meditation on ambition, identity, and the art of performance. Additionally, he has been focused on the production of a new musical variety show, The Energy Curfew Music Hour. Created with Claire Coffee and featuring Punch Brothers, season one is available on Audible and all podcasting platforms. Season two will be released this fall (details to be announced soon).
Laurie Anderson with Sexmob's Let X=X is out now. This triple-LP / double-CD set was recorded live during a 2023 tour by Anderson and the jazz band Sexmob—Steven Bernstein on brass, Kenny Wollesen on drums and percussion, Douglas Wieselman on winds and guitar, Briggan Krauss on saxophone and guitar, and Tony Scherr on bass. The album features 23 songs, including many favorites from throughout Anderson’s career, performed in new arrangements—plus one by Lou Reed and Metallica, “Junior Dad.” Their performance of "O Superman," from Anderson’s landmark 1982 album, Big Science, at the Ravenna Festival in 2023, can be seen here. Anderson and Sexmob play more US and international dates this spring and summer.
Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Live Forever is now available on CD and double LP, following its recent digital release. It was captured live over the course of two sold-out summer nights at the Old Town School of Folk Music in bandleader Alynda Segarra’s new home of Chicago. Spanning 14 songs, Live Forever presents their acclaimed 2024 album The Past Is Still Alive in its entirety, as well as a selection of set-defining staples, like “Pa’lante,” “Pyramid Scheme,” and LIFE ON EARTH’s “Precious Cargo” and “Rhododendron.”
