J.S. Bach: Cello Suites Giovanni Sollima

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007:
• 1 Bach: Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude 02:20
• 2 Bach: Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: II. Allemande 04:12
• 3 Bach: Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: III. Courante 02:12
• 4 Bach: Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: IV. Sarabande 02:42
• 5 Bach: Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: V. Menuet I and II 02:51
• 6 Bach: Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: VI. Gigue 01:27
• Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008:
• 7 Bach: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: I. Prélude 03:34
• 8 Bach: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: II. Allemande 03:19
• 9 Bach: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: III. Courante 01:45
• 10 Bach: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: IV. Sarabande 04:13
• 11 Bach: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: V. Menuet I and II 02:59
• 12 Bach: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008: VI. Gigue 02:22
• Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009:
• 13 Bach: Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: I. Prélude 02:59
• 14 Bach: Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: II. Allemande 03:27
• 15 Bach: Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: III. Courante 02:24
• 16 Bach: Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: IV. Sarabande 03:35
• 17 Bach: Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: V. Bourrée I and II 02:58
• 18 Bach: Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: VI. Gigue 02:54
• Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1011:
• 19 Bach: Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1011: I. Prélude 03:13
• 20 Bach: Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1011: II. Allemande 04:00
• 21 Bach: Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1011: III. Courante 03:09
• 22 Bach: Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1011: IV. Sarabande 03:43
• 23 Bach: Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1011: V. Bourrée I and II 04:09
• 24 Bach: Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1011: VI. Gigue 02:22
• Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011:
• 25 Bach: Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: I. Prélude 05:13
• 26 Bach: Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: II. Allemande 04:31
• 27 Bach: Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: III. Courante 02:09
• 28 Bach: Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: IV. Sarabande 02:51
• 29 Bach: Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: V. Gavotte I and II 04:26
• 30 Bach: Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: VI. Gigue 02:35
• Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012:
• 31 Bach: Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: I. Prélude 03:42
• 32 Bach: Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: II. Allemande 07:11
• 33 Bach: Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: III. Courante 03:12
• 34 Bach: Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: IV. Sarabande 04:18
• 35 Bach: Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: V. Gavotte I and II 03:42
• 36 Bach: Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: VI. Gigue 03:40
• Steven Hackett (b. 1950): Horizons (Genesis, Foxtrot, 1972) for Cello Solo:
• 37 Hackett: Horizons (Genesis, Foxtrot, 1972) for Cello Solo 01:20
• Niccolò Sanguinazzo: Partita di gavote sopra un Basso:
• 38 Sanguinazzo: Partita di gavote sopra un Basso 08:58
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Gigue from Suite No. 1 for Cello and Piano:
• 39 Bach: Gigue from Suite No. 1 for Cello and Piano 01:30
• Pancho Ragonese (b. 1978): Aparecidos for Cello Solo:
• 40 Ragonese: Aparecidos for Cello Solo 02:50
• Domenico Galli (1649 - 1697): Sonata II da "trattenimento musicale sopra il violoncello"for Cello Solo:
• 41 Galli: Sonata II da "trattenimento musicale sopra il violoncello"for Cello Solo 03:56
• Giovanni Sollima (b. 1962): Jook-Urr-Pa for Cello Solo:
• 42 Sollima: Jook-Urr-Pa for Cello Solo 04:15
• Niccolò Sanguinazzo: Gigue from Suite No. 3 for Cello and Piano:
• 43 Bach: Gigue from Suite No. 3 for Cello and Piano 02:50
• John Gunn (1765 - 1824): Logan Water da "40 Favorite Scotch Air:
• 44 Gunn: Logan Water da "40 Favorite Scotch Air 02:07
• Luigi Forino (1868 - 1936): Prayer on the Prelude of the IV. Suite:
• 45 Forino: Prayer on the Prelude of the IV. Suite 03:53
• Johann Sebastian Bach: VI Suite in D Major:
• 46 Bach: VI Suite in D Major: I. Preludio 03:33
• 47 Bach: VI Suite in D Major: II. Allemanda 08:25
• 48 Bach: VI Suite in D Major: III. Corrente 03:00
• 49 Bach: VI Suite in D Major: IV. Sarabanda 04:28
• 50 Bach: VI Suite in D Major: V. Gavotte I e II 03:11
• 51 Bach: VI Suite in D Major: VI. Giga 03:30
• Umberto Pedraglio (b. 1978): Allemanda:
• 52 Pedraglio: Allemanda 02:48
• Total Runtime 03:00:53

Info for J.S. Bach: Cello Suites

Every cellist of renown eventually faces up to the Everest of their repertoire, the solo Cello Suites of J.S. Bach. For Giovanni Sollima, this has been a work of many years in the making, as he explains in a booklet introduction.

As with so many musicians, he suddenly found empty time stretching before him during the pandemic, and this space for reflection and study enabled him to deepen his relationship with music which he has known for decades.

In doing so, he discovered a new perspective on it by playing all six of the suites on the violoncello piccolo for which Bach probably wrote the Sixth. This is an obsolete, five-stringed instrument, of a size between viola and standard cello. With his background in historically informed performance, he settled on gut strings and a pitch of A = 415hz: a semitone lower than the standard modern tuning of A = 440hz.

‘I am looking for a sound not adjusted to today’s parameters, and an answer to the question of expression which is distant from the vision of the 19th and early 20th centuries.’

Even more than the choice of instrument, his couplings shed a uniquely illuminating light on these familiar pieces. Giovanni Sollima has assembled a kind of reception history in sound of the Cello Suites.

It takes in Alfredo Piatti’s late-Romantic arrangement of the Gigue from the First Suite for cello and piano; likewise Robert Schumann’s earlier transcription of the Gigue from the Third Suite. In the early 20th century, Luigi Forino arranged the Prelude to the Fourth Suite for Cello Quartet; then Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco arranged the whole of the Sixth Suite for solo cello and strings.

Often these arrangements draw out the implied harmonies from Bach’s solo lines, and they do so in a bridge between Bach’s own world and their own, later sensibilities.

Such creative responses to Bach are almost completely unknown and unrecorded, making Giovanni Sollima’s new testament of Bach a uniquely rewarding experience.

He has added several brief modern reflections for solo cello, by Steve Hackett, Pancho Ragonese, Umberto Pedraglio, and himself. Thus the history of the solo cello, and of Bach’s masterpieces, comes full circle.

Giovanni Sollima, 5-stings piccolo cello
Massimo Polidori, cello
Ludovica Rana, cello
Tommaso Tesini, cello
Peyman Kafsdoozha, lute
Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria
Filippo Arila, piano, conductor

Giovanni Sollima
is a true virtuoso of the cello, playing for him is not an end in itself, but a means of communicating with the world.

He is a composer out of the ordinary, he communicates with a music full of mediterranean rhythms, with a melodic vein typically Italian, his world covers all eras 'from the Jurassic of the Cello' as he calls the baroque period to the 'Metal'. He writes mainly for the cello and contributes significantly to the creation of new repertoire for his instrument. His audience is diverse; from classical music lovers to young 'metalheads' Giovanni Sollima conquers all.

Sollima was born in Palermo into a family of musicians. He studied cello with Giovanni Perriera and Antonio Janigro and composition with his father and Eliodoro Sollima and Milko Kelemen. From an early age he worked with musicians such as Claudio Abbado, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Jörg Demus, Martha Argerich, Riccardo Muti, Yuri Bashmet, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Ruggero Raimondi, Bruno Canino, DJ Scanner, Victoria Mullova, Patti Smith, Philip Glass and Yo-Yo Ma.

His works as a soloist with orchestra and various ensembles (including the Giovanni Sollima Band, which he founded in New York in 1997) - unfolds between official and alternative locations: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Alice Tully Hall , Knitting Factory and Carnegie Hall (New York), Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Salle Gaveau (Paris), Santa Cecilia, RomaEuropaFestival (Roma), Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Kunstfest (Weimar), Kronberg Cello Festival , Time Zones Festival (Bari), Teatro Massimo, Teatro alla Scala (Milan), International Music Festival in Istanbul, Cello Biennale (Amsterdam), Tokyo Summer Festival, the Venice Biennale, Ravenna Festival, 'The Sounds of the Dolomites', Ravello Festival, Expo 2010 (Shanghai), Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Liverpool Philharmonic ... In Parallel to the cello his curiosity led him to explore new frontiers in the field of composition through contamination between different genres making use also of oriental instruments, electrical and many of his invention.?He also collaborated with other artists such as, for dance, Karole Armitage, and Carolyn Carlson, for the theater with Bob Wilson, Alessandro Baricco, and Peter Stein and cinema with Marco Tullio Giordana, Peter Greenaway, Lasse Gjertsen (DayDream, 2007), and John Turturro.

Together with cellist and composer Enrico Melozzi he promoted the project 100 VIOLONCELLI created at the Teatro Valle Occupied in Rome. Musicians from all age, formation, got together for 3 days and 3 nights of cello music, from baroque going through rock music to contemporary music written 'during the concerts' there were no limits. The project was repeated in 2013 and in 2014 from May 23-25th will take place in Milan at the Teatro delle Arti. There will be the 3rd edition of the composition contest and the first edition of a 'libretto' contest.

I 2013 he also was the Maetro Concertatore of the project 'La Notte della Taranta' a festival of tradtional popular music from the Salento (region of Apulia) that climax with a big concert with an audience of more 130 000 persons. This summer he will repeat the experience on the 23rd of August.

Among the last albums 'Neapolitan Cello Concertos' for Glossa and 'Caravaggio' for Egea.

The prestigious Chicago Symphony Orchestra commissioned a new double cello concerto for himself and M°Yoyo Ma, the premiere will take place at Symphony Hall in Chicago in February 2014.

Giovanni Sollima, teaches at the Accademy of Santa Cecilia in Rome and at the Fondazione Romanini of Brescia. He plays a cello by Francesco Ruggieri cello (1679, Cremona).

Booklet for J.S. Bach: Cello Suites