Bach – Six Suites for Solo Cello I

Paolo Pandolfo (viola da gamba, Switzerland/Italy)

Johann Sebastian Bach – The Six Suites for Solo Cello I

Pandolfo’s fictional dialogue makes much of the fact that he is borrowing these suites from the cello‚ not stealing them. He does so to great effect‚ however‚ and such is his musical personality that one can quickly forget about transcriptions and lose oneself in the sound of Bach played‚ quite beautifully‚ on an instrument which Pandolfo rightly describes as ‘noble‚ proud‚ and at the same time fragile and vulnerable’. – Gramophone 10/2001

Paolo Pandolfo is one of the most renowned Early Music specialists and viola da gamba players of the world-wide Early Music scene. He began his research in the field of renaissance and baroque musical idioms around 1979 together with violinist Enrico Gatti and harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini. As a member of Jordi Savall’s ensemble Hesperion XX, Pandolfo toured and recorded extensively between 1982 to 1990. Today, his solo engagements take him regularly all over the word and include collaborations with artists such as Emma Kirkby, Rolf Lislevand, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Mitzi Meyerson, Jose’ Miguel Moreno and many others. His discography includes releases with companies such as Astree, EMI, Philips, Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Tactus, Simphonia and, since 1997, exclusively with Glossa. All of his recordings, including his transcriptions of J.S.Bach’s six Solo Suites, released in 2000, have received overwhelming critical acclaim by Europe’s leading magazines such as Gramophone, Le Monde de la Musique, Goldberg Scherzo, Diapason, etc. His recording of C. F. Abel The Drexel Manuscript was nominated as the best instrumental release of the year 2010 by the BBC Music Magazine. Since 1990, Pandolfo is the Professor for viola da gamba at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland.