Bach, Concertos For Solo Cello

While Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was above all else a dazzlingly accomplished harpsichordist, his considerable output for flute can easily be explained by the milieu in which he worked for nearly thirty years. The Berlin court of Frederick II was in fact governed by two flautists: the king himself, and his teacher and accredited and exclusive composer, the famous Johann Joachim Quantz. His five flute concertos were derived from a group of seven concertos for harpsichord written between 1747 and 1755. It is very likely that Emanuel Bach himself made all these transcriptions. The versions for flute nearly always date from the same year as the corresponding harpsichord concerto, which suggests virtually simultaneous conceptions.

This fascinating set provides a refreshing window onto a much studied, much idolized, and oft performed master of composition, allowing many of his familiar works to appear in a new light, recognizable and yet transformed. Bach's music is often described as indestructible, in the sense that no matter how it is performed, or in whichever arrangement, it's essential spirit survives. Many of the transcriptions included here represent the work of contemporary, world-class performers bringing Bach's masterpieces into the repertoire of their own instruments or ensembles, thereby giving new timbres to the genius of Bach's contrapuntal lines.

After the success of their Tartini disc (Arcana 478, Diapason d'or, 5 stars from Musica), Mario Brunello and the Accademia dell'Annunciata return for an ingenious collection of six concertos, all of which are transcriptions of other works. Not only do we hear the keyboard arrangements of Venetian concertos such as Marcello's famous oboe concerto and Vivaldi's Violin Concerto RV230, but also reconstructed concertos by Bach such as those for oboe and oboe d'amore (BWV 1056 and 1055) and those that have come down to us in their original version — from the Violin Concerto BWV 1042 up to and including the renowned Concerto nach Italienischen Gusto BWV 971.

Italian cellist Massimiliano Martinelli is one of the most talented musicians on the international scene today. His album “Bach – Complete Cello Suites”, published under the Halidonmusic label, quickly surpassed 4 million views on YouTube after its initial release – making it one of the most popular recordings of the Bach Suites for Solo Cello on the platform.

This is an excellent and varied selection of composers from the very well known like Palestrina, Monteverdi, Bach and Vivaldi, through the less famous but familiar like Frescobaldi, Sainte-Colombe and Zelenka, to the downright obscure. It is all delightful: the musicians are uniformly excellent, and include such great names as Gustav Leonhardt, Cantus Colln, Christopher Hogwood and so on. They give fine performances both of the familiar works and of the less familiar ones. Obviously there will be discs you like more than others and you may already have favourite versions of some works, but these discs are never less than very good and are often outstanding.

Pieter Wispelwey received his early training from Dicky Boeke and Anner Bijlsma in Amsterdam, and continued his studies with Paul Katz in the USA and William Pleeth In England. His repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach to Carter, Kagel and Schnlttke. He regularly plays the complete solo cello suites by Bach and Britten and the complete sonatas by Beethoven and Brahms in his many recitals, the latter with Paul Komen, and in the USA with Lois Shapiro, as his piano partner.

Brilliant Classics embarked on a daring project in the year 2000, the year of the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death: this budget label decided to release a complete set of Bach's works. They were not the only label to do so - Teldec and Haenssler both did as well - but the Brilliant Classics set stands out for several reasons. First, they attempted (though did not fully succeed) to create a complete set entirely recorded on period instruments, using historically informed performances.