BACH CELLO SUITES
Ensemble 360
Upper Chapel, Sheffield
Friday 28 October 2022, 3.00pm / 7.00pm
£15
£10 Disabled / UC and PIP recipients
£5 Under 35s & Students

BACH
Cello Suite No.2 (21’)
Cello Suite No.4 (24’)
Ensemble 360’s cellist, Gemma Rosefield presents two more of Bach’s well-loved and intimate works for unaccompanied cello, following her warmly-received recital in spring 2022. These Suites are some of the most frequently performed and recognisable solo compositions ever written for cello, and regularly feature in film and television soundtracks. They are presented together with a short, informal conversation about Bach’s celebrated works between Gemma and Tom McKinney, BBC Radio 3 presenter and Music in the Round’s Programme Manager.
BACH Johann Sebastian, Cello Suites No.2 & No.4
Cello Suite No.2 in D minor, BWV 1008
Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Minuet I / II
Gigue
Cello Suite No.4 in E flat, BWV 1010
Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Bouree I / II
Gigue
Bach’s Cello Suites were probably composed in about 1720 during Bach’s time in Cöthen. It isn’t known for whom Bach wrote them, though there are at least two likely candidates working in Cöthen at the time: Christian Ferdinand Abel (1682–1761), a great friend of the composer for whom Bach wrote the three sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord (BWV 1027–9), and Carl Berhard Lienicke (d. 1751), the leading cellist of the Cöthen orchestra. Whether either of them was the player Bach had in mind is a matter of pure speculation since no documentary evidence has come to light. Equally uncertain is why Bach wrote them. The likeliest explanation is that they were intended – like much of his keyboard music – for private performance.
© Nigel Simeone