Bach Cello Suites Part II

Bach Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008
Bach Cello Suite No. 4 in E flat major, BWV 1010
Bach Partita in A minor, BWV 1013
Bach Cello Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012

Mats Lidström cello

Mats Lidström, Solo Cello of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and an internationally known pedagogue and virtuoso, picks up the mantle from his colleague Peter Adams at the Holywell Music Room, completing our traversal of Bach’s solo cello suites with the even-numbered suites. The bouncing Gigue of No. 2 contains the most extended two-part writing of the six, while No. 4 is noted for its pair of almost skeletal Bourrées. The fiendishly difficult sixth and final suite was written for an instrument of five strings and demands extensive hopping across strings as it urges itself forward from a propulsive Prelude.