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Overtures to Bach / Haimovitz
PENTATONE

Overtures to Bach / Haimovitz

$21.99

Details

Composer
BACH GLASS SIERRA
Artist
Matt Haimovitz
Format
SACD
Label
PENTATONE
Released
Sep 09, 2016
Catalog #
PTC5186561
UPC
827949056161

About

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.”

Tracklist 12 tracks

  1. 1 Overture 05:36
    Track
    1
    Title
    Overture
    Duration
    05:36
    Composer
    Philip Glass
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  2. 2 Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude 02:15
    Track
    2
    Title
    Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude
    Duration
    02:15
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  3. 3 The Veronica 11:57
    Track
    3
    Title
    The Veronica
    Duration
    11:57
    Composer
    Du Yun
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  4. 4 Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: I. Prélude 03:56
    Track
    4
    Title
    Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: I. Prélude
    Duration
    03:56
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  5. 5 Run 07:28
    Track
    5
    Title
    Run
    Duration
    07:28
    Composer
    Vijay Iyer
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  6. 6 Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: I. Prélude 03:20
    Track
    6
    Title
    Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: I. Prélude
    Duration
    03:20
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  7. 7 La memoria 09:09
    Track
    7
    Title
    La memoria
    Duration
    09:09
    Composer
    Roberto Sierra
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  8. 8 Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1010: I. Prélude 03:08
    Track
    8
    Title
    Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1010: I. Prélude
    Duration
    03:08
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  9. 9 Es War 08:34
    Track
    9
    Title
    Es War
    Duration
    08:34
    Composer
    David Sanford
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  10. 10 Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: I. Prélude 05:27
    Track
    10
    Title
    Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: I. Prélude
    Duration
    05:27
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  11. 11 Lili'uokalani 10:28
    Track
    11
    Title
    Lili'uokalani
    Duration
    10:28
    Composer
    Luna Pearl Woolf
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz
  12. 12 Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: I. Prélude 04:28
    Track
    12
    Title
    Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: I. Prélude
    Duration
    04:28
    Composer
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Performer
    Matt Haimovitz