Johann Sebastian Suite

Steven Isserlis’s award-winning discography spans his diverse interests in repertoire and his musicological enthusiasm, as well as demonstrating his supreme artistry and uniquely beautiful sound, and his first recording of the complete Bach cello suites is an indelibly important addition to the set. Steven writes that ‘the Bach suites are works of such total perfection, such sublimity, that it is well-nigh impossible to feel ready for them’. He has proved more than adequate to the task and this release is a triumphant conclusion to an artistic pilgrimage. Steven’s eloquent booklet notes reveal his personal thoughts about the suites, as well as extensive academic research.

An eminent interpreter of Vivaldi, Giuliano Carmignola has always had a great affinity with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, as can be heard in his landmark recordings of the Violin Sonatas with Andrea Marcon (2002), the Violin Concertos with Concerto Köln (2014, Diapason d'or), and the Sonatas & Partitas (2018), which Gramophone judged to be "a first-rate choice among the recordings of these works on period instruments, despite the competition”. Carmignola’s latest project took shape during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and offers a new and sometimes experimental reading of Bach’s Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso, in which he highlights new details and exalts the choreatic character and the brilliance of many of the suites’ movements.

Nobody knows why Johann Sebastian Bach composed his six suites for solo cello. Nor does anybody know how it came about that the suites were soon afterwards consigned to oblivion and more than a century before a 13-year-old Spanish musical prodigy discovered a worn copy of the score in a second-hand bookstore store in Barcelona. For the next 11 years Pablo Casals practiced them every day. Finally, in 1936, he entered London’s Abbey Road studios to record the second and third suites for the first time. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, Bach’s cello suites have become a rite of passage for all aspiring cellists.

Could Bach’s Suites be most representative of his French identity? Composed in Germany around 1720 at the Court of Köthen, like the Brandenburg Concertos, for a Francophile and gambist, they find in Myriam Rignol’s vision and vibrant embodiment an unmistakable French flavour, transcended by the viola da gamba! When an exceptional talent meets the instrument that makes Bach resound in Versailles, lending it the rhythm of the dances so dear to Louis, in a polyphony like no other, Johann Sebastian dazzles in the Palace of the Sun King…

Rudolf Buchbinder is firmly established as one of the world's foremost pianists and is frequently invited by major orchestras and festivals around the world. His comprehensive repertoire encompasses numerous 20th century compositions and has been a recording artist for over four decades now resulting in a vast catalogue of more than 200 releases. Amongst them, Sonys release of the entire 32 piano sonatas by Beethoven, which was awarded the prestigious ECHO Klassik prize. Buchbinder is lauded over and again for his state of the art interpretations of the piano milestones by Beethoven and Brahms. Now, for the first time in his recording career, Rudolf Buchbinder tackles the third of classical musics Three Bs Johann Sebastian Bach.

“One of the great interpreters of J. S. Bach,” was the New York Times’ description of the German organist and harpsichordist Helmut Walcha (1907-1991). His “intuitive grasp of the composer’s mind and intentions” was noted by The Guardian, while Gramophone judged that “his coherence and inner logic as a Bach interpreter remain unsurpassed.” Walcha’s recordings of Bach’s major solo keyboard works, performed on the harpsichord, are gathered together in this superb 13-CD collection.