BACH CELLO Zoe Knighton The complete cello suites BWV 1007-1012 CD one CD two

Suite No. 1 in G major, Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1007 BWV 1008 1 Prelude 2’18” 1 Prelude 3’32” 2 Allemande 5’28” 2 Allemande 3’48” 3 Courante 2’35” 3 Courante 2’20” 4 Sarabande 3’18” 4 Sarabande 5’23” 5 Menuet 1 and 2 3’42” 5 Menuet 1 and 2 3’13” 6 Gigue 1’46” 6 Gigue 2’55”

Suite No. 4 in E flat major, Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1010 BWV 1009 7 Prelude 4’10” 7 Prelude 3’21” 8 Allemande 4’01” 8 Allemande 4’05” 9 Courante 3’51” 9 Courante 3’23” q0 Sarabande 4’46” q0 Sarabande 4’02” Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) qa Bourée 1 and 2 5’58” qa Bourée 1 and 2 4’10” qs Gigue 2’34” THE CELLO SUITES qs Gigue 3’22” Zoe Knighton Suite No. 5 in C minor, Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1011 Recorded at Move Records studio BWV 1012 qd Prelude 7’00” Editing: Vaughan McAlley qd Prelude 4’57” Mastering: Martin Wright qf Allemande 7’12” Photos: Pia Johnson qf Allemande 8’19” qg Courante 2’03” qg Courante 4’02” qh Sarabande 4’09” qh Sarabande 5’03” P 2017 Move Records qj Gavotte 1 and 2 4’56” move.com.au qj Gavotte 1 and 2 4’36” qk Gigue 2’19” qk Gigue 4’50” he debate still rages entire form, these six suites have find something the heart responds to about the origins formed the backbone and engine and which is not artificial to one’s own and intention behind room of musical understanding for nature.” T these suites. Were they every modern cellist and indeed all Boris Pergamenschikow refers to written for the cellists lovers of Bach’s music. The notes “the rules of the game of which many of the court (Christian themselves in the early suites are have been passed on while retaining Ferdinand Abel and Christian relatively simple but the decision on a 20th century point of view. Feelings Bernhard Linke) where Bach was how to play them can be crippling. and emotions, moods and sentiments employed at the time? Were they unite us written for a strange instrument called human a violoncello da spalla? (an instrument Suite 1: G major – Innocence and joy of childhood beings of larger that a viola designed for those different unfamiliar with played a gamba and Suite 2: D minor – The antithesis of innocence eras. This played horizontally supported by a teenage/early adulthood anguish of self discovery makes music strap) or were they essentially a set of Suite 3: C major – Triumph of adulthood, self universal and exercises for Bach himself to practise gives us the his skills, getting more complicated satisfaction, grown ups having fun courage to as the suites progress? Without the Suite 4: E flat – The responsibility of coming of age tackle these surviving original manuscript or – having doubts over one’s chosen path imposing documentation, there is so much works.” speculation and hearsay but as little Suite 5: C minor – The despair of aging, regret, Peter bits of information come to light, one longing Wispelwey thing is mostly constant – the notes writes so that are on the page. Suite 6: D major – The joy of relinquishing eloquently: But which page?! Are we to trust responsibility, the joy of a full life and the intense “Above all the Anna Magdalena transcript, his wisdom that comes with age – the sheer delight in it is magical student, Kellner’s manuscript or the having time on one’s hands music and first printed edition? Dealing with possibly these decisions and playing these biblical in suites comes with it a great education Rostropovich articulates every the sense that it narrates stories in in understanding and coming to terms cellist’s dilemma: “The hardest thing a comprehensible language, from with one’s own aesthetic. In effect, the to achieve in interpreting Bach is the archaic to the refined, about performance of these suites become a the necessary equilibrium between the immeasurable dimensions and musical signature of each cellist. human feelings – the heart which variations of the human experiment.” Since our beloved Pablo Casals undoubtedly Bach possessed – and Pablo Casals says it most brought these works to public the severe, serious and profound poignantly: “How could anyone think attention and presented them in their aspect of interpretation … It’s hard to of Bach as cold when these suites seem to shine with the scordatura (the A string is Of the sarabandes, the standouts most glittering kind of to be tuned down to a G) are the fourth and fifth. The sublime poetry?” and the sixth suite is written simplicity and implied complexity of Thinking of these for an entirely different the fifth sarabande makes it one of his suites not as individual instrument with 5 strings greatest movements. movements or even as – most likely a violoncello Of the fourth movements, perhaps individual suites, but as piccolo or viola pomposa or the most loved is the third suite an entire package has viola da spalla. Many attest bourées but if I had to pick one, it is become more and more that Bach himself invented the second bourée of fourth suite. It common. I often muse this 5 string instrument and never fails to make me smile, like a over the idea that a it definitely increased the much loved older relative. journey through life can technical capabilities of the Of the gigues, the second seems be mirrored through the player. to have a foreboding sense of suites. One can also compare foretelling the future while the sixth After playing these the movements against acts like a closing curtain finale to the suites in chronological each other. The preludes entire set and one has a sense of a order, at the conclusion invariably set the scene for series of reminiscences. of the D major suite each chapter being told in Of all the works that I play, these there comes an the suite. The ominous and seem the most changing in my own overwhelming urge to angst ridden second prelude perception of them. They grow with just quietly slip from the dominant is countered by the gay abandon of me and allow so many different (D major) to the tonic (G major) and the sixth. angles of understanding. I think most begin the cycle again. It mirrors so The allemandes range from the cellists feel the same. much of the cyclical nature of life and delightfully courteous first to the ZOE KNIGHTON death. astoundingly beautiful and prayer-like In talking about these suites, one sixth. of the most interesting (and obvious) The courantes are things to do is to compare them by far the most playful against each other. Whether or not movement with the first Bach conceived these six suites as almost sounding like a one unit, they have moulded together. child’s guessing game, The common understanding is that the second flitting past the later suites were written at a like a disturbed memory, later date but they still carry one the the fifth holds immense thread of consciousness from the power and the sixth earlier ones. This is also supported embodying all the fun by the fact the fifth suite is written that has come before.