Julius Berger presents Bach's eternal ciphers - a source of inspiration for all time! Included in the full-colour booklet are works by the painter Linda Schwarz. Her "Notenbilder" [Score Images] are based on Bach's first cello suite and inspired by Berger's great technical brilliance and spiritual joy in interpretation. Julius Berger: violoncello.
By choosing to record classical repertoire with electric bass, including Bach’s Cello Suites, Jacques Bono has acquired a unique position in the music business. Playing them at their Thuringian church “original sites” put Bach's works into high contrast by interpreting them on an instrument of our times, more than 300 years after their composition – a project never ventured before. The time, the separation into musical genres and the familiar listening sensations are all overcome in Jacques Bono's performances. The cellist unperturbedly countered initial doubts by critics who claimed that it was impossible to perform Bach's cello suites on an electric bass with a musical venture that has music lovers of all origins intrigued – a revolutionary act in the best sense of musical tradition. In 2013 Jacques Bono had the idea of recording Bach’s 'Inventionen' in two voices together with a female violinist. On the German classical music scene he could not find a female violinist who would venture to play freely with him without fear of offending academically imposed values. He was thus delighted to find Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu in Los Angeles, who proved to be a violinist capable of playing J. B. Bach's music vivaciously, in a heart-felt manner and free of dogma.
Hindemith's music for cello closely follows his evolution as a composer. With elements that look back to Schumann, Three Pieces, Op. 8 is among his earliest published works, while the solo Sonata, Op. 25 is indebted to Bach's Cello Suites and is one of the most intense and demanding of his chamber works. The ingenious variations on a frog he went a-courting are lighter in nature, contrasting with the weighty depths of the Sonata for Cello and Piano. Sebastien Hurtaud was first prize winner at the Adam International Cello Competition in 2009.
Songs of Solitude was conceived by the violist Hiyoli Togawa at a time when a virus was forcing people across the world into isolation and she herself needed to find a new rhythm of life as concert after concert was being cancelled. As she relates in the booklet to the disc, playing Bach – music that combines powerful emotions with a crystal-clear structure – became part of her daily routine, along with walks along the empty streets of Berlin. During these, the importance of remaining creative became even clearer to her, along with the idea to offer people the opportunity through music to reflect upon the difficulties of living through a pandemic. Having recently collaborated with the composer Kalevi Aho, she came upon the idea of asking him and a number of other composers to write for her – pieces that would ‘reflect life and work in the time of the coronavirus and that distil isolation in music’. The result is Songs of Solitude – works for solo viola commissioned from 11 different composers and interwoven with sarabandes from Bach’s cello suites. The individual pieces range from the meditative (Toshio Hosokawa reminiscing in his version of the traditional Sakura) to the defiant (Johanna Doderer’s Shadows). Some of them even provided Hiyoli with musical company – Aho’s Am Horizont requires her to play two parts on the viola while singing a third, and the piece by John Powell is written for nine voices, recorded in multitrack. The album was recorded in Berlin during three periods, June to October 2020, as the various pieces arrived and the restrictions in place at the time permitted.
Bach's Cello Suites are his only works for solo cello but are central to the repertoire and remain unequalled in their expressive musical depth. Dor Gidon Amran, the virtuoso mandolinist who has recorded his own unique arrangement of Paganini's 24 Caprices on Dynamic (CDS8038), has now arranged Cello Suites Nos. 1-3 for the mandocello. This is a baritone instrument of the mandolin family, but much larger than a mandolin, whose strings are tuned exactly like those of the cello. Being played with a plectrum, the mandocello belongs to a very different sound world to the cello, offering a unique perspective on these great works.
Maria Kliegel celebrates her 70th birthday in 2022 and this collection brings together some of her most outstanding recordings, personally selected by Kliegel from her vast Naxos discography. Known as ‘La Cellissima,’ Maria Kliegel’s playing is characterized by a warmth, sensitivity and refinement that complements everything she performs. Combining the best from her teachers Janos Starker and Mstislav Rostropovich, and working alongside excellent orchestras and pianists, Kliegel’s inspirational joie de vivre radiates from all of these performances. From her GRAMMY-nominated Bach Cello Suites to a Saint-Saens Cello Concerto ranked among the top 50 recordings of the 20th century by Scala, this collection is a major celebration of Maria Kliegel’s fluent virtuosity and irreplaceable musicianship.
Michal Balas passionately presents two cello concertos by Joseph Haydn. The young Polish cellist devotes himself to the C major and D major concertos, which are highly esteemed among cellists. 'All cellists were brought up to play these pieces with great respect - like Bach's cello suites or Beethoven's sonatas,' says Balas, who is on the threshold of a global career and is studying in Basel. With his debut album, he brings a fresh perspective to this repertoire. In collaboration with conductor Christian Erny and the Kurpfalzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim, Balas reinterprets the Haydn concertos with courage and confidence. His individual cadenzas show his personal perspective. The recording shows an outstanding performance and intensive exchange. Balas sets a new milestone in his musical journey.
The sixth album of the prodigy sisters with 470,000 albums sold. French classical crossover stars go back to their roots and revisit the repertoire they loved growing up. An enticing assortment of lean-back repertoire, including Hans Zimmer's "Now We Are Free" (from the movie Gladiator), Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", The Beatles's "Yesterday", and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Some tracks feature piano accompaniment. Camille and Julie Berthollet's second album has now sold more than 100 000 copies in France and is now a Platinum Album.
Chopin, Liszt, Schumann & Rachmaninoff: Early Recordings 3 / Grimaud
MDG
CD
$32.99Jul 02, 2021
Bach's cello suites are an immovable milestone and touchstone for every cellist. Six weighty monologues in Bach's unmistakable language, to which the playing technique was only gradually able to fully respond. To follow the genius's train of thought through this musical microcosm is a unique attraction, presented by Martin Ostertag with fine nuances and great sensitivity. Martin Ostertag studied with Leo Koscielny at the University of Music Karlsruhe and with André Navarra in Paris and Detmold. In 1967, he was laureate of the International Competition of the City of Vienna and in 1968, made the Young Concert Artists national selection by the German Music Council. After that, he was first principal cellist of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the Amati Ensemble Berlin, Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and finally, starting in 1974, the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg. Since 1980, Martin Ostertag has been professor of cello at the University of Music Karlsruhe.
Argentine violinist Tomás Cotik now resides in the U.S. He is a professor of violin at Portland State University. Here, he performs his own arrangements for violin of the J.S. Bach Six Cello Suites. This is, of course, some of the greatest of all of the solo cello literature, beautifully arranged for and performed on violin.
This release of the Britten Cello Suites follows Quirine Viersen’s successful album of the Bach Suites. The album is a tribute to the artist’s good friend and producer Paul Janse, who passed away two years ago. Dutch cellist Quirine Viersen is one of the leading musical personalities of her generation. Her intense and virtuosic playing has convinced the public, the press, and her colleagues of her special musicality. She has shown broad insight in classical music literature with her concerto and recital performances as well as her festival participation. Viersen has been awarded numerous prizes at international competitions, the most important being the Young Artist Award in 2000 which was presented to her by the Credit Suisse Groupe. Viersen plays a 1715 Joseph Guarnerius Filius Andreae, provided by the Dutch National Instrument Fund.
BRITTEN Solo Cello Suites: Nos. 1–3 • Daniel Müller-Schott (vc) • ORFEO C 835 111 A (70:33)
Next to Bach’s six, there are probably no greater challenges to the art of the cello than the three suites for solo cello of Benjamin Britten, even considering those by Hindemith and Reger. Britten had wanted to compose six but died before he could write more than three. No matter; these are major pieces, and it is good to see them coming more into their own with a number of recent recordings of all or some of them.
We are told that it was hearing Rostropovich play the first Shostakovich cello concerto in 1960 that impelled Britten to write a sonata for him, which they performed the following year, and to write the Cello Symphony in 1963. The three suites followed in 1964, 1967, and 1971. It is customary to grant Rostropovich authority in the performance of the first two suites (he never recorded the third), though he himself had some later reservations about his recording of the first, because he thought he played it so much better later. But these suites have now become the province of young cellists and that’s a good thing.
Daniel Müller-Schott has all the technical skills necessary (a phenomenal pp, for instance). He takes a forthright approach to the first suite. The opening Canto is firmly stated and adumbrates what follows. His performance sounds to me more a matter of statements about than a lyrical exploration of Britten’s voice. On the whole, he seems much more comfortable in the second suite, though the concluding Ciaccona occasionally loses its sense of line. The third suite, however, starts off with a wonderfully caressing Lento, and Müller-Schott is completely engaged with what follows. No recording of Bach’s or Britten’s suites, however good, and this is certainly a good one, can take the place of hearing them live.
This recording is certainly to be recommended and it gets better as it goes on. Müller-Schott has a slightly grainy sound and this fits his approach. He has clearly taken to heart Leonard Bernstein’s view of Britten’s music that “if you really hear it, not just listen to it superficially, you become aware of something very dark.” These are dark recordings, indeed. This is not the only view possible of these suites, however, and I am also much taken with the more lyrical one by Tim Hugh (Naxos), a recording that seems to have slipped past us, and Peter Wispelwey has a recent (2010) live recording of the first suite that is wonderful to hear (Onyx). These are good times for Britten’s response to Bach.
• J.S. Bach's Six Cello Suites occupy a very special place in the history of western music. Dozens of recordings exist, many more have certainly be made and many more will surely come.
• Claus Kanngiesser, who studued with Pablo Casals, has now undertaken a recording of these pieces for Edition EigenArt at TACET.
• With a distinctive and personal way of playing, he questions interpretative rituals and taboos of playing technique, supplying information on these matters in the accompanying booklet.
The 18th century experienced a mass migration of musicians from Italy – hitherto regarded as “the home of music” – seeking better fortunes in nations to the north. Giacobbe Basevi Cervetto, Giambatista Cirri and Francesco Geminiani went to London, Luigi Boccherini to Madrid. Antonio Vivaldi aimed for Dresden though never arrived, having died en route in Vienna. These Italian instrumentalists / composers and others are the focus of Out of Italy, a survey of sonatas and duos for two cellos and continuo by eminent baroque cellist Phoebe Carrai and her protégé Beiliang Zhu, many of them quite rare. “full-bodied… distinguished performances that offer a genuine point of view” (Classics Today on Phoebe Carrai’s Bach Cello Suites) “elegant and sensual, stylishly wild” (The New Yorker on Beiliang Zhu)
-----
REVIEW:
Most composers in the programme are anything but familiar to most music lovers. This disc should contribute to making them better known. Phoebe Carrai and Beiliang Zhu are ideal advocates of their instrument and of its music from the 18th century. They deliver technically brilliant and musically compelling performances, and receive excellent support from Charles Weaver and Avi Stein.
“Gift Voucher: six Suites for Slava” This note, scribbled on a paper napkin was a promise supposedly made in 1964 by Benjamin Britten to the cellist Mstislav Leopoldovich “Slava” Rostropovich. It would appear that he wanted to compose for his friend a contemporary counterpart to Bach’s Solo Suites, which for any cellist are a sort of Old Testament in the cello repertoire. Britten took Baroque dance movements as a model and formed them into modern character pieces. Both from the point of view of form and tone, they exude a kinship and affinity with Johann Sebastian Bach. The fact that he actually only composed three suites was due to Britten’s poor health and his death not long afterwards. Britten’s encounter with Mstislav Rostropovich was the motive and inspiration for his cello works: they had met in the early 1960s through Dmitry Shostakovich at a performance by Rostropovich of the Soviet composer’s First Cello Concerto. Shostakovich is said to have complained after the concert of bruised ribs because during the concert Britten had often jabbed him in the ribs out of pure enthusiasm for the music. That enthusiasm led Benjamin Britten to dedicate his cello suites to the exceptional cellist. (Jakob Spahn)
Matt Haimovitz’s continuously-evolving and intense engagement with the Bach Cello Suites reaches a new zenith with Overtures to Bach, six new commissions that anticipate and reflect each of the cello suites. The new overtures expand upon the multitude of spiritual, cross-cultural, and vernacular references found in the Bach, building a bridge from the master’s time to our own. The solo cello recital has been a Haimovitz trademark since the year 2000, when he made waves with his Bach “Listening-Room” Tour, in unconventional venues throughout the US. In the fall of 2015, he released his profound new interpretation of the Bach Suites, The Cello Suites According to Anna Magdalena, inspired and informed by an authoritative manuscript by Bach’s second wife, and performed on period instruments.
The new album, Overtures to Bach, pairs each new work with the Prélude from the suite it introduces, with Haimovitz performing on cello and cello piccolo. Philip Glass simply and eloquently prepares the audience for the first Suite with his Overture, encouraging an open and calm frame of mind. For the second suite, Du Yun creates a heartbreaking quilt of cries in The Veronica, mingling a Russian Orthodox prayer for the dead, Serbian chant, and central European gypsy fiddle music. Vijay Iyer’s Run responds to Bach’s third suite with infectious energy and kinesthetic rhythms that celebrate the natural resonance of the instrument as well as the composer’s jazz roots. Then, Roberto Sierra’s La memoria plays on our memory of Bach's Suite IV, seamlessly referencing motivic fragments and creating a kaleidoscopic mirage with the exotic flavors of Caribbean bass lines and salsa rhythms. David Sanford’s Es War, a response to the fifth suite, opens with a tour de force of pizzicato, then wrestles with Bach’s epic fugue with a saxophone’s wails. For the sixth and final suite, Luna Pearl Woolf is inspired by pre-Western Hawaiian chant, taking full advantage of the virtuosic properties of the cello piccolo and treating it operatically, from the low bass to the soprano stratosphere.
Overtures to Bach spans more than time, linking us to far-flung corners of our musical world and offering an entrée into six distinct compositional voices. Then, as Philip Glass writes, “Just let Bach’s music begin. It’s there for the listening.”
