Johann Sebastian Bach
Suites a Violoncello Solo senza Basso
Year: 1717-1723
Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude
Introduction:
Johann Sebastian Bach's original manuscript of the Six Suites for Solo Cello has never been found. It's likely Bach wrote his Cello Suites between 1717-23 when he was serving as Kapellmeister in Köthen, along with his other famous secular triumphs including the Brandenburg Concertos and the Well-Tempered Clavier. They are, without a doubt, some of the most emotionally intense pieces in the Baroque repertoire, making the most of the emotional depth of a solo cello and using a wide range of complex playing techniques. There are six suites in all, each with six movements, each of which acts like a musical conversation high passages are echoed by reflective low playing, and dense chords accompany delicate ornamental flourishes. The musicians have relied on a copy written out by his second wife, Anna Magdalena. Her role as a scribe has even led some musical historians to paint her as a sort of Bacon to Bach’s Shakespeare, with the suggestion that she would be the author of numerous sequels herself but there are no records to support this hypothesis. It's perhaps more surprising that these amazing works weren't widely known before the 20th century, and were merely dismissed as studies.
Johann Sebastian Bach ( 1685-1750)
Johann Sebastian Bach is a composer and organist of the Baroque period was born in Eisenach, Germany. His work is part of the monuments of classical music and benefit universal recognition in the history of music. His work is the testimony of a fundamental synthesis at the time in baroque period: of the Germanic tradition and the Italian and French influences, as well as all the musical processes of polyphonic composition, with a preponderante place reserved to the « melody ». Bach composed cantatas, motets, masses, Magnificats, Passions, oratorios, four-part chorales, songs and arias. His instrumental music includes concertos, suites, sonatas, fugues, and other pieces for organ, harpsichord, lute, violin, cello, flute, chamber ensemble and orchestra. There are more than 1080 known compositions by the German master. Nearly all of them are listed in the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), which is the best known and most widely used catalogue of Bach's compositions. Bach was better known as a virtuoso organist than as a composer in his day. The master illustrates himself in all genres (except opera), wearing the tonal music to its full expression and preparing his future transgression in the same way. Bach's use of counterpoint is brilliant and innovative, and the immense complexities of his compositional style which often included religious and numerological symbols that seem to fit perfectly together in a profound puzzle of special codes still amaze musicians today.
Many consider him the greatest composer of all time. « If there is anyone who owes everything to Bach, it is well God », writes the philosopher Emil Cioran. Indeed, the faith of Bach is the prism indispensable to the understanding of his work. Bach is a fervent Lutheran, he writes his music to the glory of God, and it is therefore his duty to cultivate his talent. Bach, a member of a family composed of a veritable dynasty of musicians, soon found himself orphaned and raised by his elder brother, an organist. He received a solid musical training on the organ, the violin and the singing, but it was by studying the writings of his contemporaries that he really assimilated the art of composition. Through his various engagements at the court or in the church, Bach constructed an opus consisting in particular of works of circumstance: to forms bequeathed by its predecessors, he gives a new dimension so much on the expressive plane that structural, by constantly renewing itself. In his time, the recognition of Johann Sebastian Bach hardly surpasses the borders of Germany where one appreciates more his qualities of organist than his compositions. Nevertheless, he trained many musicians who perpetuated his teaching. The musical heritage of the composer will be maintained for a generation by his sons then disappear with them before being brought back to the day taste by the romantics.
Lucien
Bach: Cello Suites, BWV 1007 - 1012
Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude
Lucia Swarts (cellist)
Netherlands Bach Society 2020