Credits:

Yannis Kyriakides

Description:

Unaccompanied French-style suite for viol, the French court instrument! Bach's "Suite for Unaccompanied Cello" is a work for cello, an instrument of Italian origin, but it is composed in the form of a French-style dance suite derived from the French royal family that held court at Versailles, a form favored by 17th century players and composers of the lute, viol, clavecin, and other instruments, This album is a unique and high-standard album that attempts a thorough approach from the side of French classical music in this regard. The French virtuoso Miriam Lignol recorded the entire work on the bass de viol (viola da gamba) in a historical French building that was used in the reigns of Louis XIV and Bach. She is a core member of the Ricercar Consort led by viol world great Philippe Pierlot, Pygmalion, an up-and-coming group at the forefront of the French classical music scene, and Ensemble Correspondance. He is also a member of the chamber music group "Les Tambres" with Yoko Kawakubo and Julien Wolffs, and has received high acclaim for his numerous discs.The reason why these suites are performed on viols is explained in the commentaries by Gilles Cantagrel, an honorary member of the Leipzig Bach Society, and by Lignol himself, but above all, the interpretation of the performance itself is overwhelmingly convincing. The interpretation itself is overwhelmingly convincing, and it is almost as if Bach had been aware of this instrument and its French musical character from the very beginning. This is a great opportunity to take a fresh look at this well-known masterpiece from a different perspective from the gumba version by Italian virtuoso Paolo Pandolfo released some 20 years ago. The appropriate engineering by Aline Brondio, a talented engineer who has been active on the ALPHA label since the label's early days, also shines through on this gem. The suites are transposed, but the pitch is almost a whole tone lower than the standard, so the first, second, third, and fifth suites sound almost in their original tunings. Naxos Japan