Alisa Weilerstein – Bach – Cello Suites, BWVV 1007-1012 (2020) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

After her acclaimed PENTATONE debut with Transfigured Night, Alisa Weilerstein returns with a complete recording of Bach’s Cello Suites. These pieces present the highest mountain to climb for any cellist, and one of the most transcendent and rewarding experiences for listeners alike. With his suites, Bach crafted — essentially without direct precedent — a body of solo cello music that forever defined the genre and brought the Baroque cello on par with its more popular cousin, the viola da gamba. Since Pablo Casals put them in the limelight again after 150 years of relative oblivion, Bach’s suites have become the alpha and omega for generations of cellists. To Weilerstein, the joy of this music — vibrant, contemporary, unquestionably alive — is the joy of discovery. Having heard and studied these pieces for years, she now entrusts her interpretation to the listener.

Since signing an exclusive contract with PENTATONE, Alisa Weilerstein has released Transfigured Night (2018), and featured on Inon Barnatan’s Beethoven Piano Concertos Part 1 as well as Old Souls, an album with music for flute and strings (both released in 2019).

“It’s like Transcendental Meditation, almost, this incredible arc,” said Alisa Weilerstein to the New York Times about performing Bach’s six unaccompanied cello suites. One of the leading talents of her generation returns for her fourth Celebrity Series appearance playing arguably the pinnacle of the cello lexicon. A must-have!

“The Bach cello suites present the player with infinite possibilities. Each note, each phrase, carries abundant varieties of expression and musical nuance. The suites are too rich with ideas, too full of subtleties, and too dense with the burden of history for any particular interpretation to be exhaustive, any particular choice definitive. All great pieces of music carry with them this sense of contradiction—they must be played, yet they can’t be played. Every expressive gesture both realizes and limits the intentions of the composer.

Tracklist

01. Alisa Weilerstein – I. Prélude
02. Alisa Weilerstein – II. Allemande
03. Alisa Weilerstein – III. Courante
04. Alisa Weilerstein – IV. Sarabande
05. Alisa Weilerstein – V. Menuets I & II
06. Alisa Weilerstein – VI. Gigue
07. Alisa Weilerstein – I. Prélude
08. Alisa Weilerstein – II. Allemande
09. Alisa Weilerstein – III. Courante
10. Alisa Weilerstein – IV. Sarabande
11. Alisa Weilerstein – V. Bourrées I & II
12. Alisa Weilerstein – VI. Gigue
13. Alisa Weilerstein – I. Prélude
14. Alisa Weilerstein – II. Allemande
15. Alisa Weilerstein – III. Courante
16. Alisa Weilerstein – IV. Sarabande
17. Alisa Weilerstein – V. Gavottes I & II
18. Alisa Weilerstein – VI. Gigue
19. Alisa Weilerstein – I. Prélude
20. Alisa Weilerstein – II. Allemande
21. Alisa Weilerstein – III. Courante
22. Alisa Weilerstein – IV. Sarabande
23. Alisa Weilerstein – V. Menuets I & II
24. Alisa Weilerstein – VI. Gigue
25. Alisa Weilerstein – I. Prélude
26. Alisa Weilerstein – II. Allemande
27. Alisa Weilerstein – III. Courante
28. Alisa Weilerstein – IV. Sarabande
29. Alisa Weilerstein – V. Bourrées I & II
30. Alisa Weilerstein – VI. Gigue
31. Alisa Weilerstein – I. Prélude
32. Alisa Weilerstein – II. Allemande
33. Alisa Weilerstein – III. Courante
34. Alisa Weilerstein – IV. Sarabande
35. Alisa Weilerstein – V. Gavottes I & II
36. Alisa Weilerstein – VI. Gigue