Friday
March 9, 2007
7:00 p.m.
David Greer Concert Hall
Bloomingdale School of Music
323 West 108th Street
New York, NY 10025
(212) 663–6021
1 train (map) to 110th street and Broadway, walk
south for two blocks to 108th street, make a right towards Riverside Drive, the
school is half way between Broadway and Riverside Drive.
Nearby buses (map), M104, M4, M116, M60, M5. Other
MTA maps available from their website. |
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The Art of the Cello
Suite: From Bach to Britten
Description:
The six suites for unaccompanied cello by J.S. Bach are considered
by many to be the greatest works written for solo cello. Written
between the years 1717–1723, the suites contain a wide range
of technical challenges as well as extraordinary emotional
depth. Yet what truly makes them captivating is that each performance
is so personal and unique to the artist playing them.
Approximately two hundred years later, the English composer
Benjamin Britten was deeply inspired by a performance by Mstislav
Rostropovich, his close friend, of the Bach cello suites. As
a result, Britten wrote his own set of suites for cello and
dedicated them to Rostropovich. There are three suites for
cello in total, Op. 72, 80, and 87, written in 1964, 1967,
and 1971, respectively.
Although the two sets of suites by Bach and britten differ
greatly in style, they are profoundly connected.The paring
of Bach's fifth cello suite and Britten's third cello suite
(Op. 87) is because they not only share the key of C minor,
but also are absorbing in their introspective and melancholy
character. The Bach is performed with the scordatura tuning,
which means that the A string is tuned down to a G. This causes
the cello to resonate even more intensely and adds to the dark
quality of the sound. The Britten suite is made up of nine
sharply contrasting movements based on three Russian folk-songs
most notably the Kontakion, or Hymn for the Departed, and was
Britten's last work for cello.
Program:
J.S. Bach
Suite No. 5, BWV 1011
Benjamin Britten
Third Suite for Cello, Op. 87
Performers:
Carolyn
Jeselsohn,
cello |
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