Our final virtual concert of the season — we are back live in November.

In addition we have more videos to share on our YouTube Channel

October 1-31 2021 — Month long video stream

Suite No.4 for solo cello in E-flat major, BWV 1010

Bach’s Cello Suite Number 4 in E flat may be the least often performed of the six cello suites. Perhaps some of you have not heard it and I will have the great pleasure of introducing you to this wonderful piece.

In 1720 Bach had finished all Six Violin Solo Partitas and Sonatas, entitling them “Book 1″. He then began composing the cello suites which were to be “Book Two”. Unlike the violin pieces, Bach’s autograph copy of the cello suites has never been found. To prepare for this performance I studied a compilation of the five most important historical sources: three of them copies made while he lived, including one by his second wife Anna Magdalena. The versions have mostly the same notes, but are otherwise quite different, especially in the question of articulation. Some may be surprised to learn that Bach leaves only the notes — with no instructions for dynamics or other descriptive or expressive terms — all of this is left to the player. My goal in studying the different sources was not musicological, but instead a wish to provide structure to my intuitions about the piece.

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