On a performance of Bach's Fifth Cello Suites and Gabrielli's Ricercars

​

“A program of shadows – not their song, but their refusal to sing.

 

The staging of what might happen on a moonless, stale night, sleepless and unsettling.

 

All the while, the cellist’s bow wraps like a cocoon around the strings – tender, but solid and confident.

 

Gabrielli sounds immediately like the glassiness of the harpsichord.

 

In comparison, J.S. Bach sounds unassuming, willing to be vulnerable.

 

It’s a staging of solitude, a lack of belonging not as injury, but a withdrawal from reality.”

​

Y.Y.