For me, whenever I play the Bach suites, all of a sudden I find myself visualising Giacometti's hands incessantly moulding the earthen clay until a face appears. Getting to grips with the Bach suites is very closely related to that sense. You have to dig deeply into the string to give birth to the phrase, to make sure it breathes correctly: a phrase that is perpetually becoming, endlessly making and remaking itself. I waited a long time before recording these suites. Then one day, or rather one night, I began. Then there was my meeting with Sarah Moon. When I first felt my longing to record the Bach suites, I dreamt constantly of her images; because whenever I look at them I think of the creation of the world, the separation of the waters, the earth appearing, all before the beginning of history. Sonia Wieder-Atherton
On Sale
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 5 & 6
$20.99
$15.99
CD
Alpha
Oct 18, 2024
ALPHA1076
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 3 & 4
Alpha
Available as
CD
$20.99
$15.99
Nov 03, 2023
For me, whenever I play the Bach suites, all of a sudden I find myself visualising Giacometti's hands incessantly moulding the earthen clay until a face appears. Getting to grips with the Bach suites is very closely related to that sense. You have to dig deeply into the string to give birth to the phrase, to make sure it breathes correctly: a phrase that is perpetually becoming, endlessly making and remaking itself. I waited a long time before recording these suites. Then one day, or rather one night, I began. Then there was my meeting with Sarah Moon. When I first felt my longing to record the Bach suites, I dreamt constantly of her images; because whenever I look at them I think of the creation of the world, the separation of the waters, the earth appearing, all before the beginning of history. (Sonia Wieder-Atherton)
On Sale
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 3 & 4
$20.99
$15.99
Vinyl
Alpha
Nov 03, 2023
ALPHA1003
Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6 & Viola da Gamba Sonatas (Arr. f
SOMM Recordings
Available as
CD
$42.99
$32.99
Sep 01, 2009
Classical Music
On Sale
Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6 & Viola da Gamba Sonatas (Arr. f
$42.99
$32.99
CD
SOMM Recordings
Sep 01, 2009
SOMMCD 090-2
Bach: 6 Cello Suites / Rignol
Château de Versailles Spectacles
Available as
CD
$29.99
$22.99
Jun 11, 2021
Could Bach’s Suites be most representative of his French identity? Composed in Germany around 1720 at the Court of Köthen, like the Brandenburg Concertos, for a Francophile and gambist, they find in Myriam Rignol’s vision and vibrant embodiment an unmistakable French flavor, transcended by the viola da gamba! When an exceptional talent meets the instrument that makes Bach resound in Versailles, lending it the rhythm of the dances so dear to Louis, in a polyphony like no other, Johann-Sebastian dazzles in the Palace of the Sun King…
On Sale
Bach: 6 Cello Suites / Rignol
$29.99
$22.99
CD
Château de Versailles Spectacles
Jun 11, 2021
CVS040
Bach: The Cello Suites / Brinkmann
arcantus Musikproduktion
Available as
CD
$29.99
Sep 24, 2021
“They are the quintessence of Bach’s work as a composer - and Bach is the quintessence of all music. “ Pablo Casals said about the Cello Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach.
When these Suites are played in historically informed performaces by someone about whom The Strad said: “Her phrasing sounds as natural as breathing...”, you may be more than curious.
Through her playing Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann succeeds in touching the listeners hearts in a very unique way. Her interpretation of the Bach Suites has been shaped by her own musical life journey.
A specialist in historical performance for over 25 years and a soloist prize winner (Brugge and Brescia) she has been working in over 40 countries with both iconic pioneers and some of the most prestigious ensembles. As soloist and ensemble-partner she is in high demand by the international Early Music scene.
Bach: The Cello Suites / Brinkmann
$29.99
CD
arcantus Musikproduktion
Sep 24, 2021
ARC 19014
Bach: 6 Cello Suites / Phoebe Carrai
Avie Records
Available as
CD
$29.99
$22.99
Sep 01, 2003
Cellist Phoebe Carrai performed with period-instrument ensemble Musica Antiqua Köln from 1983 to 1993, arguably the group's eclectic heyday. Carrai's spirit of adventure apparently hasn't waned in the meantime, given her curious and often unique interpretations of these familiar Bach suites. Her rendering of the opening Prelude of the First suite is inordinately broad and spacious, her subtle easing into the first note of each phrase giving the entire movement an inevitable flow and continuity. The fourth-movement Sarabande receives a similar slow, probing treatment akin to that of Jaap ter Linden (Harmonia Mundi). In contrast, Carrai's rendering of the Second suite's Courante is swift and expertly articulated, rivaling the speed and accuracy of Wispelwey (Channel) and Dieltiens (Accent) as well as modern-instrument virtuosos Navarra (Calliope) and Starker (Mercury).
At times Carrai's unconventional stylistic differences have a tendency to border on mannerism. For example, in the final Gigue of the Second suite, where Carrai's weighty, disproportionate emphasis on certain individual lines imbues the movement with an unusual lugubrious elegance, her forebearance also undermines the dance. Further, Carrai's occasional stresses on the introductory notes of the Fourth-suite Prelude simply sound bizarre. Likewise Carrai's uncharacteristically dreamy, evenly tempered renderings of the Sixth suite's two Gavottes (fast duple-meter folk dances) are among the slowest ever. Compared to my period-instrument reference performance by Anner Bylsma (Sony SEON), who sensibly completes this same movement in less than three minutes, Carrai's 4:37 is a bit of a stretch.
Avie's richly resonant sound complements Carrai's full-bodied performances. John Lutterman's informed notes are a joy to read. While not recommendable as a first choice among the many recordings of Bach's Suites, Carrai's highly personal and yes, distinguished performances nonetheless offer a genuine point of view--which is more than can be said for many less imaginative accounts that currently clutter the catalog. --John Greene, ClassicsToday.com
On Sale
Bach: 6 Cello Suites / Phoebe Carrai
$29.99
$22.99
CD
Avie Records
Sep 01, 2003
AV0021
Bach: 6 Cello Suites / Carmine Miranda
Centaur Records
Available as
CD
$22.99
Mar 26, 2013
BACH Six Cello Suites • Carmine Miranda (vc) • CENTAUR 3263/4 (2 CDs: 130:10)
Since reviewing Truls Mørk’s version of Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites in 29:5, no fewer than six more accounts have crossed my desk. In chronological order, they were Jean-Guihen Queyras (31:4), Sara Sant’Ambrogio (33:3), Luigi Piovano (34:5), Hekun Wu (34:6), Tanya Tomkins (35:1), and Richard Tuncliffe (36:1). Some of the cellists used conventional cellos, others period instruments. All but two, however, had one thing in common: They were uniformly awful, though each in its own way, ranging from barely tolerable to downright execrable. The one I kept coming back to as my preferred and strongly recommended set throughout those reviews was the first on this list, the one by Jean-Guihen Queyras, with Hekun Wu being a close runner-up. Both, by the way, performed the suites on cellos in modern configuration.
Bach’s six cello suites are like a Siren’s call to cellists of all persuasions, luring many of them to ruin. And the thing is there’s no reason for it. Was it a singular achievement for Bach to write such technically challenging works for an instrument that was relatively new at the time, and a melody instrument to boot, one that takes even more kindly to intensive double-stopping than the violin? Yes. But are the cello suites comparable on levels of musical scope and intellectual depth to the unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas? Not even close. There are no massive fugues in the cello suites and nothing that approaches the dimensions of the D-Minor Violin Partita’s Chaconne. The cello suites are exactly what their title tells us they are—six sets of relatively short, stylized baroque dances. Yet for cellists—and for some listeners, I think—they’ve taken on an import that may be beyond their actual significance in Bach’s output, virtually becoming every cellist’s initiation rite.
So, how does the young Venezuelan cellist, Carmine Miranda (b. 1988), fare in his initiation into cellodom’s manhood? Well, first a few words about this young artist, who is likely unknown to readers, as this is his recording debut; he was 22 when he recorded the Bach suites for Centaur in 2011–12. Miranda’s early training took place in his native country, where he studied at the Carabobo State Music Conservatory, then in the Latin-American Academy of Violoncello, and finally at the Simon Bolivar Conservatory of Music (the institution that spawned the famous “El Sistema”). Miranda then traveled to the States to study with Ross Harbaugh at the University of Miami, followed by further coaching under Yehuda Hanani at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where Miranda obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and is a candidate for a doctorate.
In the U.S., he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Bowdoin Music Festival, the Bach Annalia Festival in Cincinnati, the Young People’s Festival in Chatham, N.Y., and is on the artist’s roster for the Close Encounters with Music Series in Great Barrington, N.Y., both under the direction of Yehuda Hanani and others.
Among Miranda’s awards are first prize at the 2005 Alhambra Music Competition, the National Prize for best soloist from the FMEA (Florida Music Educators Association), and the 2008–09 University of Cincinnati Cello Competition. He has collaborated with recognized international artists such as Yehuda Hanani, Awadagin Pratt, Rodolfo Saglimbeni and performed as a soloist with several chamber ensembles and orchestras, recently including the Caracas Municipal Symphony Orchestra. He is also the founder and member of the Troika Piano Trio comprised of violinist Joshua Ulrich and pianist Assaf Sommer.
Miranda, who authored his own album note, makes no mention of the instrument(s) he uses for these performances, how he handles the scordatura tuning of the Fifth Suite—does he retune his cello according to the original manuscript or use the modern standard-tuning edition?—or what he does to accommodate the Sixth Suite, believed to have been originally written for a five-string violoncello piccolo. His note speaks only of his personal impressions of, and responses to, the emotional and spiritual character and quality of each of the pieces. At one point, in fact, I was quite taken aback to read, “Interpretation of the suites has nothing to do with what is correct, accurate, and historical, but it rather has to do with going deep within the soul of the writing…” That raised a red flag for me, not to mention an eyebrow. I couldn’t help but think to myself that only the immodesty of youth could be so callow and cavalier with respect to the years of serious musicological research that have attempted to ascertain what is “correct, accurate, and historical,” and to the many veteran cellists who have spent more years studying these works than Miranda has been alive. But the proof, as they say, is in the hearing. And so I decided not to allow my annoyance with Miranda’s words to influence my judgment of his playing.
Instantly, from the very first bar of the G-Major Suite, the cellist that came to mind was Pablo Casals, a comparison that elicits no higher compliment. In my above-mentioned review of Tanya Tomkins’s Bach suites, I noted how slow and super-romanticized her readings were; she takes 3:16 for the opening Prelude, a full half-minute longer than Jacqueline du Pré, who, at 2:35, is hardly fast. So, I went back to Casals’s 1950s recording and found that he dispatched the Prelude in two minutes flat and without any rhythmic distensions or distortions. What about Carmine Miranda? 2:09. I don’t know if Miranda studied Casals’s recordings, but if he didn’t, it’s truly uncanny how closely he channels both the letter and the spirit of the great cellist’s example.
It’s really difficult to express in words the beauty of Miranda’s performances. His cello is a modern instrument, or at least one updated with modern fittings and tuned to modern pitch, but the tone it emits is lighter in weight than that which we often hear in versions played on modern cellos. Of course, much of that can be attributed to Miranda’s bowing. He doesn’t dig into the strings to produce guttural sounds. The tone is clean and clear and intonation perfect. But one expects more than technical proficiency, dexterity, and finesse; and more—much more than that—is what one gets from Miranda’s readings.
Alluded to above is the fact that these are suites of dances, and time and again, in extolling the virtues of Jean-Guihen Queyras’s performances, I’ve remarked on the way in which he manages to capture the essence of each dance step. Miranda, it seems to me, goes one step further (no pun intended). He hears, and allows us to hear, the historical roots of each dance and whence it comes, which is pretty funny when you try to square that with his comment that interpretation of the suites has nothing to do with the historical. Yet listen to Miranda’s courantes, and you will hear not just rapid tempos, but the very definition of the Renaissance dance as described by Thoinot Arbeau, the 16th-century French theorist who tells us that the courante was danced with fast running and jumping steps. If Miranda didn’t learn this from reading music history, he knows it intuitively, for it’s not just his accelerated tempos but the effect of rhythmic arrest you would observe in a dance that involved running forward several steps, then making a sudden jump, hop, or jerk to stop short the forward motion. In Miranda’s hands, the suites don’t just sound dance-like, as in stylized baroque refinements, they sound like actual Renaissance dances.
Likewise, Miranda’s sarabandes are played with the stately gravitas that would have been à la mode for a processional court dance in 17th-century France. Interestingly, the sarabande had its origins as a fairly fast dance a century earlier and quite likely in Mexico or Central America. When Spanish colonists brought the dance back to Spain with them, it was banned in 1583 for being obscene. It wasn’t until the sarabande made its way to Italy and then France that it became the slow, triple-meter dance that was widely adopted into the baroque suite.
I’ve never heard Bach’s cello suites played in quite this way, and while I wouldn’t want to be without the versions by Queyras, Hekun Wu, Casals, and János Starker, Carmine Miranda’s will not only join them, it will stand out as perhaps the most original and imaginative interpretations of the suites I’ve heard.
Centaur’s recording, too, is outstanding, capturing Miranda’s cello fairly close up but with sufficient air around it to allow for a natural sounding bloom, yet without any annoying echo effect. An album note states that the recording was made without any editing. This is a definite buy recommendation for both connoisseurs of Bach’s cello suites and those who appreciate cello playing at its best. I’d have to say that Carmine Miranda has passed his initiation with flying colors. Welcome to the ranks of the world class players.
FANFARE: Jerry Dubins
Bach: 6 Cello Suites / Carmine Miranda
$22.99
CD
Centaur Records
Mar 26, 2013
CRC3263/3264
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites, Vol. 2 (arr. for theorbo)
Naxos
Available as
CD
$19.99
Apr 11, 2025
Yasunori Imamura presents the second instalment of Bach's Cello Suites arranged for theorbo (Volume 1 is available on 8.574617). The theorbo is the most important plucked instrument in the lute family, with a range very similar to the cello. Certain technical elements, such as the playing of arpeggios are, in fact, easier on the theorbo whose unique timbres bring a new sonic quality to the performances heard here. These elements are most evident in Suite No. 6, composed for a cello with five strings, but which sounds totally idiomatic when played on the theorbo.
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites, Vol. 2 (arr. for theorbo)
$19.99
CD
Naxos
Apr 11, 2025
8574618
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites, Vol. 1 (arr. for theorbo)
Naxos
Available as
CD
$19.99
$13.99
Feb 28, 2025
Yasunori Imamura, whose recording of Bach's complete lute works has been described as a 'magnificent interpretation' (Naxos 8.573936-37), turns his attention to the Cello Suites. Imamura has chosen to perform these iconic suites on the theorbo, the most important plucked instrument in the lute family, with a range very similar to the cello. Certain technical elements, such as the playing of arpeggios are, in fact, easier on the theorbo whose unique timbres and resonances bring a new sonic quality to these much-loved works.
On Sale
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites, Vol. 1 (arr. for theorbo)
$19.99
$13.99
CD
Naxos
Feb 28, 2025
8574617
Bach/Godowsky: Cello Suites Transcribed For Piano / Grante
Music and Arts Programs of America
Available as
CD
$19.99
Feb 03, 2010
Leopold Godowsky's liberal adaptations of three Bach Cello Suites retool the originals in the image of hyper-romantic pianism. Harmonies implied by Bach are filled out and elaborated, with new counterpoints and sundry inner voices popping up like rabbits out of a magician's hat. Climaxes get reinforced with booming chords or octave doublings, emerging from the bowels of the keyboard. At times the music's dance origins threaten to buckle under Godowsky's garish filigree. Carlo Grante's light touch and digital deftness, however, keep the textures airborne and alive. He occasionally fidgets with rubato in a way that throws rhythmic definition askew, but he always makes the piano writing sound offhandedly easy. Excellent booklet notes make this release even more enticing. --Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
Bach/Godowsky: Cello Suites Transcribed For Piano / Grante
Alon Sariel makes his PENTATONE debut with Plucked Bach, a program exploring Bach’s cello suites performed on different mandolins, lutes, baroque guitar and oud, concluding with Sariel’s own Bach-inspired Mandolin Partita. Bach’s suites are often considered to be “the cellist’s Bible”, but the transferability of his music between instruments – a practice to which the composer himself also contributed frequently – seems to justify this fresh approach. Sariel aims to realize the timeless and universal character of Bach’s music in a multifarious sound world of plucked instruments, through a program that employs an interplay of light and dark, embodied by the first and second suites respectively.
Another objective has been to bring out the youthful élan of this music, composed years before Bach’s Passions. Altogether, this album presents Bach’s music in a new, enticing light. Alon Sariel is one of the most versatile performers of his generation, whose guiding principle is a changing perspective; giving new life to existing material, as well as creating completely new works.
REVIEWS:
It’s a pleasure to hear Israeli lutenist Alon Sariel once again...Sariel’s artistic insight is just as keen as I remembered it. Here, he plays several mandolins and lutes, baroque guitar, and oud, all of which are displayed on the album cover and all are performed with his usual class and style.
The program of Sariel’s arrangements of various Bach cello suites begins with the Prelude from Suite No. 5 in C Minor, arranged for mandolin, an instrument whose classical voice is usually heard, if at all, in song accompaniments. Here, Sariel makes a fine impression for it as a plaintive, searching voice. Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, heard in Sariel’s arrangement for lute, establishes the instrument’s authentic voice right off in an urgently strummed 2-part setting. Gavottes I and II from Suite No. 6 in D Major make a nice encore, clarified in thought and feeling. Suite No. 2 in D Minor, if anything, makes an even finer impression as a lute arrangement, beginning with a slow, contemplative Prelude with a haunting echo. As an encore, the Sarabande from this suite is performed once again, this time in Sariel’s arrangement for the Oud, an instrument of North African or Arabic origin without frets and with a short neck and, most importantly, a distinctively low, passionate voice that makes for a fine arrangement in this instance.
Sariel concludes the program with his own Mandolin Partita for what would appear to be a round-backed Neapolitan model. It is in six movements: a mystery-laden Prelude, intriguing Allemande, florid Courante with cascading notes, gently poignant Sarabande, Minuets I & 2 characterized by lively syncopations, and a Gigue handsomely decorated with grace notes. All of which reveal his knowing grasp of the Baroque style.
In September 2020 Florian Berner travelled to Tuscany. Playing in the local church, and initially just for himself, he recorded the first three of Bach’s six suites for solo cello. By early 2023 he completed the cycle in Köthen, where Bach was Capellmeister from 1717-1722. The two separate experiences captured performances of unique intuition and power.
On Sale
Bach: 6 Cello Suites / Florian Berner
$21.99
$16.99
CD
Perfect Noise
Sep 01, 2023
PN 2305
Bach: The Cello Suites / Valérie Aimard
Enphases
Available as
CD
$29.99
$22.99
Oct 06, 2023
Bach's six suites for cello (BWV 1007 to 1012) are considered the must-haves of the instrument's repertoire. In this recording, Valérie Aimard offers a generous version that radiates without ever seeking effect for its own sake. With finesse and subtlety, the performer honors Bach's greatness.
On Sale
Bach: The Cello Suites / Valérie Aimard
$29.99
$22.99
CD
Enphases
Oct 06, 2023
ENP014
J.S. Bach: The Cello Suites / René Schiffer
Avie Records
Available as
CD
$26.99
Jun 26, 2026
Anyone familiar with Apollo's Fire will recognise the exceptional baroque orchestra's engaging and entertaining principal cellist Rene Schiffer. Featured on dozens of the Apollo's Fire recordings, Rene steps into the spotlight for his solo debut recording with a meticulous rendering of that pillar of the baroque repertoire, J. S. Bach's Six Suites for Solo Cello. Deploying different instruments - a 1768 Benoit Fleury cello for the first four suites, an anonymous late 18th century violoncello piccolo with an added string for the fifth (in his own arrangement) and sixth - and multiple tunings, Rene's distinctive interpretations are in harmony with his comprehensive and probing liner notes which abound with theories and intellectual insights.
Pre-order
J.S. Bach: The Cello Suites / René Schiffer
$26.99
CD
Avie Records
Jun 26, 2026
AV2704
Bach: The Six Cello Suites / Barta
Animal Music
Available as
CD
$32.99
Feb 22, 2019
The foremost Czech cellist Jirí Bárta brings a complete recording of Bach’s cello suites. With this new album he returns to the same repertoire which he recorded 23 years ago, but enriched with life experience and offering a new interpretation. This time he has recorded all the suites on a baroque cello with gut strings and thus has come closer to the possible original sound; expressivity has been superseded by meditation and peacefulness. Bárta approaches the set of compositions as a six-movement symphony (“I remember the time when I performed the suites for the first time years ago. It felt like an epiphany: the individual suites materialized for me in a definite shape as a symphony in six movements, as a story of life in six chapters, as a perfectly logical and thoroughly structured large composition.”). Bárta spent a long time studying the material and preparing the new interpretation and recording which has the aspiration to become the classical-music event of the season.
Bach: The Six Cello Suites / Barta
$32.99
CD
Animal Music
Feb 22, 2019
ANI076-2
Bach: Three Cello Suites (Transcribed for Guitar)
Stradivarius
Available as
CD
$18.99
$14.99
Jan 05, 2024
The three Suites recorded on this CD (BWV 1007, BWV 1008 and BWV 1010) were transcribed for guitar by the performers themselves, following a practice customary for Bach and absolutely familiar to him (the Fifth Suite for cello has come down to us in two versions, one for cello and one for lute: we are not sure which came first). One should therefore recognise the full aesthetic legitimacy of the guitar transcription of these compositions, a practice, moreover, that has now been established for decades. This procedure is ultimately legitimised by the primacy, in Bach’s language, of the harmonic and contrapuntal dimension over their sonic realisation, a primacy that led Ferruccio Busoni, for whom the concept of “transcription” occupies a position of absolute centrality in his aesthetic thought, to transcribe for piano not only numerous compositions for organ by Thomaskantor, but also the Chaconne from the Second Partita in D minor for solo violin. With specific regard to the guitar, one cannot fail to mention the name of Andrés Segovia, who transcribed for his instrument and recorded in 1946 the highly famous Chaconne.
On Sale
Bach: Three Cello Suites (Transcribed for Guitar)
$18.99
$14.99
CD
Stradivarius
Jan 05, 2024
STR37211
BACH: CELLO SUITES
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA
Available as
CD
$14.38
Nov 15, 2019
Newly remastered from the original L'Oiseau Lyre tapes, a little-known Bach recording in the true French style. The modern phenomenon of the Cello Suites as a staple of any record collection may be laid at the feet of the Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, whose HMV recording, released in 1939, belatedly placed the set alongside The Well-Tempered Clavier and the solo violin works as a cornerstone of Bach's instrumental output in the consciousness of listeners who could not play a note of his music. Another two decades elapsed before a new generation of cellists took up the mantle of Casals in the LP era. Among their select number was Jean-Max Cl�ment, whose 1958 studio recording for L'Oiseau Lyre was released two years later. By then he had made a notable concerto appearance in London with Sir Thomas Beecham: 'His tone was very small indeed,' reported The Times, 'but it was of such rare beauty and refinement that we could have listened to him all night.' Like his contemporaries such as Fournier and Starker, Cl�ment used a four-string cello to play the five-string Sixth Suite, and his portamento and rubato belong to Bach performance of a different era: not until Anner Bylsma's 1979 recording would a historically informed set of the Cello Suites achieve wide circulation. However, the unostentatious elegance and refined taste of Clement's playing offer rewards of their own, especially in repertoire that finds Bach at his most French in style. The original LPs have long been sought after and fetched exorbitant prices. This new Eloquence reissue sheds light on both the French cello school and on the ever-evolving nature of Bach interpretation. The booklet includes a new essay from Peter Quantrill, placing both the suites and the recording in context.
BACH: CELLO SUITES
$14.38
CD
ELOQUENCE AUSTRALIA
Nov 15, 2019
ELOA8285235.2
Bach, J.S.: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6
Coviello
Available as
SACD
$32.99
Feb 09, 2008
Classical Music
Bach, J.S.: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6
$32.99
SACD
Coviello
Feb 09, 2008
COV20708
Bach: The 6 Cello Suites Revisited
Bridge Records
Available as
CD
$37.99
$28.99
Dec 08, 2017
Toke Møldrup's virtuosic new set of Bach's six cello suites was recorded on a 1697 David Tecchler cello and culminates with a wildly decorated 6th suite performed on a five-stringed Italian instrument. Møldrup is principal cellist of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, and professor of cello at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. The release set also includes Viggo Mangor's charming arrangement of Suite no. 1 for two violins, organ and cello. The Danish cellist Toke Møldrup, 36, recently received Queen Ingrid’s Honorary Award for his achievements on the Danish music scene. In the 20 years of his career so far, he has performed both across Europe and in the United States, South America, Japan and the Middle East at venues such as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Berlin Konzerthaus. A frequent guest at Danish music societies, Møldrup has performed as a soloist with Danish and international symphony orchestras under conductors such as Aldo Ceccato, Sanntu Rouvali, Thomas Søndergaard and Joshua Weilerstein.
On Sale
Bach: The 6 Cello Suites Revisited
$37.99
$28.99
CD
Bridge Records
Dec 08, 2017
BCD9503A/B
J. S. Bach: The Cello Suites on Six Different Instruments
Ramee
Available as
CD
$29.99
Nov 28, 2025
The term violoncello was particularly fluid in the early 18th century: it referred to a wide range of bowed stringed instruments of different sizes and shapes, generally with four or five strings; some of these instruments were held between the knees and others were supported by the arm. So when Bach's wife, Anna Magdalena, wrote Suites � Violoncello Solo senza Basso (Suites for Solo Cello without Bass) on the title page of her manuscript copy, we cannot be entirely sure what type of instrument she was referring to. It is said that Bach himself played both the violin and the viola exceptionally well, and it is quite possible that he originally composed the suites for his own use and played them on a violoncello piccolo held on the arm, using viola fingerings. It is, however, also possible that he composed these works for other virtuosi known to him, these including Gregor Christoph Eylenstein, concertmaster of the Weimar court orchestra, and the Leipzig violinist Carl Gotthelf Gerlach. While being excellent violinists, they were also known as experts on the cello and viola d'amore. These considerations-and the observation that certain suites seem particularly well suited to specific instruments-inspired Ronan Kernoa to record the six suites on six different instruments.
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
On Sale
Pre-order
On Sale
On Sale
