In the nineteenth century, piano transcriptions were both standard items in the performing repertory and the way most people got to know new music, or in the case of Bach, newly rediscovered music. There are lots of transcriptions for piano of Bach's works for strings, wind instruments, or voices, and Italian-French-American pianist Alessio Bax has dug into the older repertory and forged a program full of fresh items and attractive contrasts.
One of the best-known cellists of his generation and of the recording era overall, Yo-Yo Ma is recognized not only for his technical virtuosity but for his engaging interpretative ability, whether the tone is delicate, plaintive, playful, or impassioned. After breaking through with a collection of Bach cello suites in 1983, his ambitions and his appeal stretched far beyond the classical sphere via popular collaborations with such artists as jazz vocalist Bobby McFerrin (1992's Hush) and bluegrass musicians Stuart Duncan and Chris Thile (2011's The Goat Rodeo Sessions).
Cellist Sung-Won Yang’s debut album entirely devoted to Kodály was “the editor’s choice of the month” Gramophone Magazine and “critic’s choice of the year” Gramophone Magazine in the UK (2003). Since then, intelligence and originality of his interpretation and play have been world-widely praised by both the critics and the music fans, and have led him to appear on such prestigious venues as the Lincoln Center, the Salle Pleyel, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Royal Concertgebouw. Especially, his complete recording series of Kodály, Beethoven Sonatas/Variations, Brahms/Schumann for cello and piano, Bach’s 6 suites for solo cello, Beethoven trios (either for EMI or Decca/Universal) received international recognition.
Steven John Isserlis is one of the leading internationally ranked cellists. He plays a wide range of repertory and is noted for using gut strings and a great deal of vibrato. He is the grandson of Russian composer and pianist Julius Isserlis and can trace his family tree back to connections with both Karl Marx and Felix Mendelssohn. He spent most of his teenage years (1969-1976) at the International Cello Centre as a pupil of Jane Cowan,who required her students to read Goethe's Faust in order to understand Beethoven better and memorize Racine to know the sound of the language when playing French music.
When it came time for Johann Sebastian Bach to publish his Opus 1, what work do you think he picked? One of the sacred cantatas? One of the Brandenburg Concertos? One of the cello suites? No, none of the above. In 1726, Bach chose his B flat major Partita to start his publishing career – and once a year for the next five years, he published five more partitas, then collected them under the title Clavier-Übung in 1731. When it came time for Hungarian pianist András Schiff to make his major-label debut, what work do you think he picked? Yes, that's right. In 1985, Schiff released his recording of the complete partitas – and followed it with many more Bach recordings over the next few years until he'd released nearly the complete canonical works by 1996. And yes, Schiff's partitas are wonderful.