Magisterial Bach

 

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Musicians:
Guy Fishman (baroque cello)

Description

Bach composed the Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, BWV 1007-1012 during his tenure as Kapelmeister for Leopold, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, between 1717 and 1723. Bach was not required to produce church music for this Calvinist court, and so this period saw the creation of some of Bach’s greatest instrumental works, including the Brandenburg concerti, orchestral suites, many keyboard works, and the Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin, in which the polyphonic capabilities of what is essentially a single-voiced instrument were exploited to higher levels than ever before. Their sister works, the cello suites, seem to explore how much can be left off the page and hinted at, but still present a work as complex as those for the violin. In this way Bach invites the listener’s ear to complete the composition, his and her imagination forming an integral part of the performance. These are works that were only published 100 years after their composition, and then as studies, fit for the practice room and nowhere else. It was not until the 20th century that they were performed in their entirety and their immense value was first appreciated en masse. Since then they have been recorded numerous times, regularly appear on concert programs given by the world’s greatest artists, and form the center of every cellist’s study and creative effort. They continue to challenge both the performer and listener to bring his and her absolute best in grappling with the language and imagination of this undisputed master.

Programme
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Suites nos. 1, 2, and 4 for Unaccompanied Cello, BWV 1007, 1008, and 1010