“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) NB: each copy of the vinyl LP version of this release is one of a limited edition run of 1,000. The CD version, however, is not a limited edition.

REVIEWS:

Listening to Sonia Wieder-Atherton's suites, one can only lay down one's arms in the face of an intoxicating beauty of sound and a supreme art of phrasing. So many qualities that we admired before here impose themselves with renewed force.

-- La Libre Belgique

Following her recording of the first two suites, released in May 2020, the French cellist this time delivers her versions of Suites 3 and 4. She plumbs their depths with extreme delicacy, [her interpretation] powerful and celestial. But also: a captivating vitality, never ceasing to reveal the colors.

-- Le Soir

Of these suites, of which so many others have delivered (too?) perfect versions, Wieder-Atherton offers introspective, spiritual readings, where the depths of the soul, searched by a powerful bass, mocks the passing of time. But this Bach is not fooled by our human finitude any more than is Wieder-Atherton's bow, which unfolds sentences revealing an entire metaphysical dimension. Sublime!

-- L'Echo