Jean-Guihen Queyras
Cello
French cellist, Jean-Guihen Queyras will make his Phillips debut with selections by J.S. Bach.
Program
Jean-Guihen Queyras is a French cellist with a vast repertoire stretching from Bach to Kurtag and Ligeti. As well as performing as a soloist, he is also a regular chamber music partner, often in a piano trio with Alexander Melnikov and Isabelle Faust. This concert is a precious opportunity to hear all six of Bach’s Cello Suites, performed by a cellist whose recording of these works was welcomed with tremendous enthusiasm on its first release and is notable for the vitality and inventiveness of his interpretations.
PROGRAM:
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685-1750)
Suite No. 1 for Solo Cello in G Major, BWV 1007 (1720)
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Menuett I
Menuett II
Gigue
Suite No. 4 for Solo Cello in E-flat Major, BWV 1010 (1720)
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Bourrée I
Bourrée II
Gigue
Suite No. 5 for Solo Cello in c minor, BWV 1011 (1720)
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gavotte I
Gavotte II
Gigue
Intermission
Suite No. 2 for Solo Cello in d minor, BWV 1008 (1720)
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Menuett I
Menuett II
Gigue
Suite No. 3 for Solo Cello in C Major, BWV 1009 (1720)
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Bourrée I
Bourrée II
Gigue
Suite No. 6 for Solo Cello in D Major, BWV 1012 (1720)
Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gavotte I
Gavotte II
Gigue
About the Artist
Jean-Guihen Queyras enjoys an enviable reputation as a musician of exceptional versatility and integrity. His musical horizons are seemingly boundless and he is in great demand both as a soloist with international orchestras and conductors, a chamber musician and as a solo performer.
He has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras including the Philharmonia, Orchestre de Paris, NHK Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande and Netherlands Philharmonic, under the baton of conductors such as Franz Brüggen, Günther Herbig, Ivan Fischer, Philippe Herreweghe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jiri Belohlavek, Olivier Knussen and Sir Roger Norrington. Queyras is a regular soloist with several early music ensembles such as Freiburger Barockorchester and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. His regular chamber music partners include the pianists Alexandre Tharaud and Alexander Melnikov and the violinist Isabelle Faust. He is a member of the Arcanto Quartet with Tabea Zimmermann, Antje Weithaas and Daniel Sepec. Jean-Guihen Queyras also performs with Zarb specialists Kevyan and Bijan Chemirani.
Queyras is an enthusiastic exponent of contemporary music and is committed to expanding the repertoire boundaries of his instrument. He regularly collaborates with composers such as Bruno Mantovani, Jörg Widmann and Pierre Boulez, and has commissioned Thomas Larcher to compose a piece for solo cello and string orchestra which will be premiered in 2016. He has premiered Michael Jarrel’s concerto as well as that of Johannes-Maria Staud, which he premiered in the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Musikverein Wien in 2010, and has subsequently performed at the Salzburg Festival.
Jean-Guihen Queyras plays a cello made by Gioffredo Cappa in 1696, on loan from Mécénat Musical Société Générale since November 2005. He is a professor at the Musikhochschule Freiburg.