THE SIX SUITES Johann Sebastian Bach
Paolo Pandolfo
GCD P30405 (2 CDs)
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Performing artists
Paolo Pandolfo, viola da gamba
Production details
Playing time: 68’23 + 75’45 Recorded in Sajazarra (La Rioja), Spain, in October 2000 Engineered by Isidro Matamoros Produced by Paolo Pandolfo and Andrea Fossà Executive producer: Carlos Céster Editorial assistant: María Díaz Artwork: oficina tresminutos 00:03:00 Booklet essay: Paolo Pandolfo Booklet in English-Français-Deutsch-Español-Italiano
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Commercial release sheet (PDF)
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JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)
Suites for solo cello (BWV 1007-1012)Adapted to the viola da gamba
CD I
Suite I (BWV 1007, C major) 1 Prélude 2 Allemande 3 Courante 4 Sarabande 5 Menuets I & II 6 Gigue
Suite III (BWV 1009, F major) 7 Prélude 8 Allemande 9 Courante 10 Sarabande 11 Bourrées I & II 12 Gigue
SUITE V (BWV 1011, D minor) 13 Prélude 14 Allemande 15 Courante 16 Sarabande 17 Gavottes I & II 18 Gigue
CD II
Suite II (BWV 1008, D minor) 1 Prélude 2 Allemande 3 Courante 4 Sarabande 5 Menuets I & II 6 Gigue
Suite IV (BWV 1010, G major) 7 Prélude 8 Allemande 9 Courante 10 Sarabande 11 Bourrées I & II 12 Gigue
Suite VI (BWV 1012, D major) 13 Prélude 14 Allemande 15 Courante 16 Sarabande 17 Gavottes I & II 18 Gigue
About this CD
Originally released in 2001 but unavailable for almost two years, Glossa has designed gorgeous new packaging for this most important of Paolo Pandolfo’s projects, possibly a milestone in the recording history of Bach’s music. Everybody seems to know these discs – despite almost no marketing effort, they are perceived with such benchmarks as Glenn Gould’s or Gustav Leonhardt’s renderings of the GoldbergVariations or Anner Bylsma’s performances of the original cello suites.
The fact that these suites sound so well on the viola da gamba is of course to a great extent due to Pandolfo’s magic touch. The rich sonority of the viola da gamba truly seems to enrich these pieces and Pandolfo’s remarkable transcription gives weight to his theory that Bach originally composed them with this instrument in mind. The argument is further developed by Pandolfo in the sumptuous booklet notes.
It seemed that the music of Carl Friedrich Abel was proving singularly impervious to modern performance initiatives. More is known about the life and times of this Köthen-born composer than about his actual music (he can be placed as a pupil of JS Bach and as someone who died in the year of the 17 year-old Beethoven’s first visit to Vienna). Yet it was as a virtuosic improviser on the by then (surely?) outdated instrument of the viola da gamba that Abel was equally known for by his contemporaries. So, the most suitable candidate in the 21st century for bringing back Abel’s music to its rightful place needs to be not only a supreme interpreter on the viola da gamba and steeped in its repertory but one capable of understanding the almost lost art of improvisation. [read more...]
Widely admired as a virtuoso exponent of the viola da gamba through his concert performances and recordings of key composers from Germany, France, Spain, England and his native Italy, Paolo Pandolfo has in recent years been concentrating on his instincts and skills for improvising and composing (not to mention continuing with his teaching). An artist who can bring out the expressive vitality and poetry in the viol music of composers such as Sainte-Colombe, Marin Marais or J.S. Bach is plainly also relishing the challenges of other musical explorations that have included, on disc, an unaccompanied tour de force in A Solo and a travelogue (from this artist who is a modern, high-tech nomad himself) in Travel Notes. [read more...]