Fresh from an acclaimed Proms performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's works for solo violin, Nigel Kennedy has accused the classical music establishment of failing to do justice to the legacy of the 18th-century German genius.

In a broadside at fellow musicians, he said that some were sidelining Bach into "a rarefied and effete ghetto" while others were turning "philosophical masterpieces" into "shallow showpieces". He despaired at musicians who have "learned the same technical way [and who] all play the same technical way".

A protege of Yehudi Menuhin, Kennedy wrote in programme notes for last weekend's performance that "four melodic notes from Yehudi are worth more than a thousand from any of our living violinists", adding that "Bach speaks through Menuhin's violin".

Kennedy, who is acknowledged as one of the world's leading violin virtuosos, is somewhat unusual among musicians in his willingness to speak frankly. In 2008, he dismissed star conductors as egocentrics more interested in money and prestige than developing a musical relationship with an orchestra. He even questioned whether conducting was an art, asking: "Why would you want to stand there waving a stick when you could be playing an instrument?"

He is particularly irritated by the soullessness of contemporary Bach interpretations, which he says lack passion, fire and dynamism. He also excoriates "so-called authentic" interpretations that use period instruments to re-create sounds that he claims early composers would think "unbelievably blinkered". According to Kennedy, "specialists are pushing Bach into … a ghetto, which leaves many people feeling that Bach's music is merely mathematical and technical. I see it as my job to try to keep Bach in the mainstream and present his music with, rather than without, its emotional core."

In the programme notes he wrote: "Even the description of oneself as being 'authentic' is unbelievably arrogant – and, in the case of so-called 'period' performance, misguided. How can music … be authentic if it is stripped of passion and made into an exercise of painfully self-conscious technique?"

Not surprisingly, Kennedy's outburst has infuriated some of his targets. Michael Garvey, chief executive of the Academy of Ancient Music, one of the world's leading period instrument ensembles, dismissed the suggestion that period instrument orchestras lacked passion. "We've delivered amazingly passionate performances of that music because we've understood how it should be performed." In Australia, earlier this year, an academy interpretation of Bach received a standing ovation from 1,700 people. "An audience will not react if the performance is boring, fusty and academic," said Garvey.

Kennedy is also withering when it comes to violinists from the influential New York school of Ivan Galamian, whom he accused of sacrificing soul in favour of technical virtuosity. "What they lacked was rhythmic ingenuity, dynamic sophistication and architectural awareness," he said, adding up to a pervasive "self-satisfied smugness of sound".

He is no less critical of contemporary Russian interpreters, arguing that the sense of reflective inwardness appropriate to Bach is lost in performances more appropriate to a musical showman such as Paganini. The result, says Kennedy, is that "philosophical masterpieces end up sounding like shallow showpieces, designed merely to show off technical mastery of the violin".

Kennedy maintains that his old teacher is still the gold standard. "Menuhin was playing Bach on a fantastic spiritual level when he was a teenager. If you hear someone play vacant when they're 18, they're going to play the same type of shit when they're 50. You can't learn pathos or profundity."

Nigel Kennedy's performance of Bach at the Proms will be broadcast on BBC4 at 10pm on 9 September