Bach, J.S.: The Six Cello Suites[2 CD];

Swiss cellist Thomas Demenga returns to Bachs suites. To me, Bach is the greatest musical genius who has ever lived. His music is pure, sublime. It possesses something divine and each musician has a lifetime in which to discover new ways of interpreting it. Demenga previously recorded the cello suites for ECM between 1986 and 2002, juxtaposing them with contemporary composition in albums that count as milestones in the early history of the New Series. This new double album however is devoted entirely to Bach and the six suites. Many years of playing and studying every aspect of them, from source manuscripts to different tempos, embellishments, fingerings and bowings, have brought Demenga to the heart of the music which Bach himself described as the only goal. This new account of the music was recorded at the Hans Huber Saal in Basel. (Simultaneously with the 2-CD set ECM is issuing a vinyl album Preludes & Sarabandes, ECM New Series 2529 with selected movements from the suites).