Alon Sariel presents Plucked Bach, Bach’s Cello Suites in A New Light

Alon Sariel makes his PENTATONE debut with Plucked Bach, a programme exploring Bach’s cello suites performed on mandolin, arch-lute, chitarra Spagnola, liuto attiorbato and oud, concluding with Sariel’s own Bach-inspired Mandolin Partita.

Bach’s suites are often considered to be “the cellist’s Bible”, but the transferability of his music between instruments – a practice to which the composer himself also contributed frequently – seems to justify this fresh approach.

Sariel aims to realize the timeless and universal character of Bach’s music in a multifarious sound world of plucked instruments, through a programme that employs an interplay of light and dark, embodied by the first and second suites respectively. Another objective has been to bring out the youthful elan of this music, composed years before Bach’s Passions. Altogether, this album presents Bach’s music in a new, enticing light.

Alon Sariel is one of the most versatile performers of his generation, whose guiding principle is a changing perspective; giving new life to existing material, as well as creating completely new works.

Digital release date 24 June 2022

Trailer

Streaming live from Villa Seligmann in Hannover on Sunday May 10, 2020 - and exclusively on QChamberStream.com - Alon Sariel, Ania Vegry and Boris Kusnezow

The new streaming channel QChamberStream enables you to experience live performances of cutting edge soloists and chamber ensembles in the highest quality in your own living room.

May 10, 2020 - 17:00 (CET)

ALON SARIEL, MANDOLIN AND LUTE
ANIA VEGRY, SOPRANO
BORIS KUSNEZOW, PIANO

Works by Uri Caine, Laks, Ben-Haim, Rossi, Kapsberger, Monteverdi, Morley, Beethoven, Mozart, and Livingston

Album Release Bach in the White City – September 2019

ALON SARIEL (mandolin) - MICHAEL TSALKA (piano)

A wonderful recording of music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Yehezkel Braun In 2003, Tel Aviv's "White City" becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site as the world's largest, still existing collection of Bauhaus style buildings, constructed mainly by emigrated Jewish Bauhaus architects from Germany.

The young Israeli mandolinist Alon Sariel follows the German tradition in the young city of Tel Aviv during the 1930s, represented here by music of the late Yehezkel Braun (1922-2014), and unites it with a much earlier German culture, the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

For this project Alon Sariel uses his exceptional instrument, a mandolin made by 80 year old Tel Aviv luthier Arik Kerman, who has been following Alon's work since childhood.

His duo program with Tel Aviv born Michael Tsalka on the piano does therefore not only become an echo of remembering the deeply rooted love for Bach inside the emigrants, but at the same time builds the bridge into the here and now. Weimar, important Bach city as well as the cradle of Bauhaus, and Tel Aviv are connected here in an extraordinary way and the lasting influence of the Bauhaus until today is artistically newly absorbed by means of a musical idea. Especially in the first years of Bauhaus the close connection to Weimar's Bach history is evident and tangible. Bach's music is the fixed reference point of the musical identity at the famous Bauhaus Feasts. If there ever was an equivalent in the world of sounds for the visions of the Bauhaus artists, then Bach's oeuvre with its Baroque stylistic idiom, its regularity and defined rules came closest to their ideas in those years.

In their last album Sharkiya ("East Wind" in Arabic), released by the Israeli Music Institute (IMI) in 2016, Sariel and Tsalka already presented a handful of brilliant compositions by Yehezkel Braun.

Bach in the White City can be seen as a next step, or parallel existence: Wind From the West ̵ Bauhaus in Tel Aviv.

Programme

J.S. Bach – Sonata for Mandolin and Piano, BWV 1031
Yehezkel Braun – Mesembrianthema
J.S. Bach – Solo Partita, BWV 1013
Yehezkel Braun – Four Pieces for Keyboard
J.S. Bach – Concerto in Italian Style

Latest album release "Bach in the White City” (Sheva Collection) is available via the online channels iTunes, Qobuz and Amazon.

New CD Rembrandt! by Alon Sariel & Concerto Foscari

This album is Alon Sariel's personal homage to Rembrandt van Rijn, whose 350th date of death is commemorated by the art world in 2019.

As a lutenist, Alon Sariel has been fascinated by the Dutch Golden Age since many years now – perhaps specifically because the musical pearls of this epoch are seldomly performed and certainly are not counted among what is called the standard repertoire for this instrument.

A big part of the CD's programme is originally lute music, since without a doubt, the lute was the most appreciated instrument of the Golden Age. The paintings from these years speak a clear message: Circa 25 per cent of all music images show a lute.

However, Sariel has added some instruments – instruments, which enjoyed great popularity such as the viola da gamba and flutes. Therefore, the lute music in the recording's arrangements becomes even more colourful!.

Moreover, Alon Sariel wanted to create ample space for improvisation, a crucial element of the time's music – and so Concerto Foscari unleashes their imagination as well, having a Rembrandt painting before their eyes.

During rehearsals and recording the musicians often discussed about „colours“, of finding a darker or brighter sound. Musical terminology is often borrowed from the visual world, from the world of images and painting. The moment when painters try to visualise music can be a very intriguing one – as if they wanted to „freeze“ the music and give it eternity, as opposed to a chord on the lute that disappears in a few seconds. It is exactly those painted moments that Alon Sariel wants to breathe new life into with the resources of music and the aim to create the „soundtrack“ of the Golden Age.

Two pieces are recorded here for the first time: Louys de Moy's „L’Italiana & Spagnolet“ and the „Allemande“ by Constantijn Huygens.

Pieces by Emanuel Adriaenssen, Joachim van den Hove, Nicolas Vallet, Johannes Schenck, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, Samuel Scheidt, Nicolaus a Kempis, Jacob van Eyck, Carel Hacquart, Louys de Moy, John Bull, Peter Philips, Benedictus a Sancto Josepho, Constantijn Huygens and Adriaen Valerius.

Alon Sariel (lute) &
Concerto Foscari: Elisabeth Champollion (flute), Fredrik Hildebrand (viola da gamba), Claudius Kamp (flute/dulcian), Paweł Miczka (violin/viola), Leopold Nicolaus (violin)

Concerto Foscari © Sonja Bürmann

The CD and Booklet “Rembrandt!” are available via the online channels VKJK and Amazon.

Mandolinist, lute player and conductor Alon Sariel joins our roster.

A great news from AULOS just before we enter 2019: mandolinist, lute player and conductor Alon Sariel joins our roster.

With his virtuosity and creative programming we look forward presenting him to our public in Belgium and to the world!

More information about Alon Sariel