"Viola da gamba and J.S. Bach suites for cello"
Soloist Paolo Pandolfo (viola da gamba, Italy)
In the program: Johann Sebastian Bach - Six Suites for Solo Cello, BWV 1007-1012
 
 
The historical revelations continue! We meet another great-grandmother of today's cello - the viola da gamba! The festival features a unique personality - the Spanish-Italian Paolo Pandolfo, who gives the opportunity to hear the viola da gamba perform all of Johann Sebastian Bach's solo cello suites. The suite consists of a prelude, an allemande, a curant courantante, a sarabande, two minuets (or two burles, or two gavottes) and a final jig. Music historians have called J.S. Bach's suite for cello "one of the most profound of all works of classical music", "the monophonic music in which man created the dance of God".
Mr. Pandolfo is perhaps the only one in the world to have released a CD of these suites performed specifically for the viola da gamba. Looking creatively and striving for authenticity, P. Pandolfo not only performs J.S. Bach's text, but also harmonizes it and accompanies himself on the seven-string viola, thus opening up the authentic sound of J.S. Bach's time.