Will, I know exactly what you mean.

When I got back into playing the violin after several years away from it, I tried to play one of Bach's solo violin partitas. After months of practice (not just on that one piece, I hasten to add), I could make a reasonable fist of it. Nothing that a professional violinist, or even a music undergraduate, would be all that happy with, but I found the whole experience immensely satisfying.

Made me a much better fiddler.

Last year I discovered Isabelle Faust's recordings of the violin pieces, and they immediately became my favourite, I listened to them almost every day! She has a profound understanding of the ebb and flow of each piece as a whole, and the overall trajectory. I've not heard that in any other violinist's interpretations as yet - too often they get seduced into making each phrase pretty (easily done!) and lose momentum. There's a "questing" in Bach, a relentless inquisitiveness, one-thing-after-another, and Faust nails that.

Isabelle faust from sonatas & partitas