The program immediately sets this apart from the dozens (or hundreds) of recordings of Bach's six suites for solo cello on the market; at the risk of turning a common two discs into an unwieldy three, Russian-British cellist Karine Georgian appends the three sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard, BWV 1027-1029, to the solo cello sonatas. Bach's sonatas for solo cello, and the sonatas and partitas for solo violin, have roots in distinct phases of his musical background, and their seemingly inward, intellectual qualities ...
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The program immediately sets this apart from the dozens (or hundreds) of recordings of Bach's six suites for solo cello on the market; at the risk of turning a common two discs into an unwieldy three, Russian-British cellist Karine Georgian appends the three sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard, BWV 1027-1029, to the solo cello sonatas. Bach's sonatas for solo cello, and the sonatas and partitas for solo violin, have roots in distinct phases of his musical background, and their seemingly inward, intellectual qualities are usually emphasized in performance, all the more so since the discovery of murky numerological qualities in the music. Georgian goes in a different direction, one that makes the cello sonatas fit logically with the gamba works. In a nutshell, she treats the dance rhythms designated by the suites' individual movement titles as true performance directions rather than jumping-off points for virtuoso freedoms or intellectual essays. These are light, airy suites for solo cello, just...
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