Alon Sariel Plucked Bach

Alon Sariel makes his PENTATONE debut with Plucked Bach, a programme exploring Bach’s cello suites performed on different mandolins, lutes, baroque guitar and oud, concluding with Sariel’s own Bach-inspired Mandolin Partita. Bach’s suites are often considered to be “the cellist’s Bible”, but the transferability of his music between instruments – a practice to which the composer himself also contributed frequently – seems to justify this fresh approach.

Mandolinist Alon Sariel continues his series of Bach transcriptions with Plucked Bach II. On his first Plucked Bach album (jpc 10925407), Sariel played the cello suites on a variety of plucked instruments. In this new recording, however, he plays works for lute, organ and violin - all on "only" two types of mandolin. With a distinctive and groundbreaking interpretation of his own transcriptions and arrangements, Sariel succeeds in breathing new life into some very familiar works by Johann Sebastian Bach. The iconoclastic Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565) for the organ takes on a contemplative and intimate character on the mandolin. Excerpts from the Lute Suite (BWV 998) and the Violin Partita No. 3 in E major (BWV 1006) are painted in a completely new color palette. In Bach's Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor (BWV 1003), Alon Sariel demonstrates the incredible suitability of the mandolin for Bach's music. And as an encore, you will hear his interpretation of Ysaÿe's dazzling Obsession.

Mandolinist Alon Sariel continues his series of Bach transcriptions with Plucked Bach II. On his first Plucked Bach album (jpc 10925407), Sariel played the cello suites on a variety of plucked instruments.