Bach: The 6 Cello Suites Viola de Hoog

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007:
• 1 I. Prelude 03:34
• 2 II. Allemande 04:05
• 3 III. Courante 02:36
• 4 IV. Sarabande 02:43
• 5 V. Menuet I-II 03:14
• 6 VI. Gigue 01:41
• Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1010:
• 7 I. Prelude 04:15
• 8 II. Allemande 03:57
• 9 III. Courante 03:21
• 10 IV. Sarabande 04:11
• 11 V. Bourree I-II 04:25
• 12 VI. Gigue 02:56
• Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011:
• 13 I. Prelude 06:21
• 14 II. Allemande 05:09
• 15 III. Courante 02:04
• 16 IV. Sarabande 03:14
• 17 V. Gavotte I-II 04:32
• 18 VI. Gigue 02:05
• Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009:
• 19 I. Prelude 03:20
• 20 II. Allemande 03:51
• 21 III. Courante 03:10
• 22 IV. Sarabande 03:52
• 23 V. Bourree I-II 03:14
• 24 VI. Gigue 03:20
• Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008:
• 25 I. Prelude 04:09
• 26 II. Allemande 03:42
• 27 III. Courante 02:21
• 28 IV. Sarabande 04:32
• 29 V. Menuet I-II 03:02
• 30 VI. Gigue 02:39
• Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012:
• 31 I. Prelude 04:48
• 32 II. Allemande 07:09
• 33 III. Courante 03:58
• 34 IV. Sarabande 04:49
• 35 V. Gavotte I-II 03:30
• 36 VI. Gigue 04:19
• Total Runtime 02:14:08

Info for Bach: The 6 Cello Suites

Seventh release on the VIVAT label features the greatest of all solo cello masterworks, Johann Sebastian Bach’s extraordinary Six Suites for Solo Cello. Unique in the solo repertoire, Bach’s six suites represent the musical summit for all cellists.

For three decades, renowned Dutch cellist Viola de Hoog has straddled the worlds of both period instrument performance – playing as soloist and principal cellist with many of Europe’s greatest historic instrument orchestras – and also the ‘modern’ world, playing cello for twenty years in the world-famous Schönberg Quartet.

For this recording, Viola de Hoog plays a remarkable baroque cello from 1750 by the great Italian maker, Guadagnini – an instrument perfect for Bach’s music. For the sixth suite, which demands a five-string cello, she plays an equally unusual Bohemian instrument dating from the late 18th century.

Recorded in the perfect acoustic of the Oude Dorpskerk, Bunnik – a historic Dutch church which has hosted many fine period instrument recordings – by distinguished engineer Adriaan Verstijnen.

Extensive presentation includes 48 page booklet with authoritative liner note in four languages (English, Dutch, French & German) by renowned Bach expert Prof. Greta Haenen, together with session photographs, and reproductions from Anna Magdalena Bach’s manuscript. The recording is excellent value, with two full CDs for the price of one.

“The Prelude of the First Suite is unusually spacious...But it's in the dances that de Hoog is outstanding. They retain their essential character...but they're full of nuances in rhythm and phrasing...The playing is full of understated imaginative detail...among the very best of the 42 versions I find I've accumulated over the years.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“[De Hoog's] gigues contrast a full legato with well-articulated and animated staccato while her preludes and sarabands draw out a resonance viol players would be proud of.” (Early Music Today)

“This issue is noteworthy for its fine sound and for the elegance and finesse of the playing. De Hoog has a light touch when playing chords...Another recurring attribute is her poised vigour in the quicker dances...[de Hoog] even at her most individual, is entirely convincing.” (Gramophone Magazine)

Viola De Hoog, cello

Viola de Hoog
is a versatile musician whose distinguished international career has predominantly been focused on historically-informed performance. For twenty of those years she also travelled the world as the cellist in the renowned Dutch Schönberg Quartet.

After completing her studies at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Anner Bijlsma, she concentrated on performing chamber music, playing both modern and baroque cellos. In 1986 she was a finalist at the First International Concours for baroque cello in Paris.

For many years Viola de Hoog was principal cello with Anima Eterna, a position she has also held with Tafelmusik Toronto, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, English Baroque Soloists, the Baroque Orchestra of the Netherlands Bach Society and Concerto Köln: she currently is principal cello with the Kölner Akademie, Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and The King’s Consort.

The repertoire of her chamber music ensembles, Schönberg Quartet and Ensemble Schönbrunn (www.chambermusic.nl), spans from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries and has generated, between the two ensembles, an impressive discography. Ensemble Schönbrunn has released fifteen CDs, of which worthy of particular mention, alongside works by Bach, Haydn and Mozart, is the series Out of the Shadow of the Masters on the Globe label, with rediscovered compositions of Beethoven’s contemporaries such as Friedrich Hartmann Graf, Anton Reicha, Ferdinand Ries and Johann Martin Nisle. The Schönberg Quartet recorded thirty-five CDs, including the complete works for strings of Schönberg, Berg, Webern and Zemlinsky (Chandos). The friends of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute in Los Angeles awarded the quartet its Honorary Life Membership, an honour that had only previously been accorded to artists such as Felix Galimir, Eugene Lehner and Pierre Boulez. In 2009 – the Schönberg Quartet’s final year – Viola de Hoog founded the Narratio Quartet for the performance of Beethoven’s string quartets on period instruments. Its début concerts, featuring the five late quartets of Beethoven at the Early Music Festival in Utrecht, were a resounding success.

Viola de Hoog has performed Bach’s six cello suites widely, including in Japan, Amsterdam and Paris. She teaches baroque cello and chamber music at the conservatories of Amsterdam, Utrecht and Bremen, where she was recently distinguished with the position of honorary professor.

Viola de Hoog plays a highly prized cello made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Milano, c.1750, loaned from the collection of the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation.

Booklet for Bach: The 6 Cello Suites