Bach / Rosefield  MITR, Sheffield Upper Chapel 21/1/22

Bach, Cello suites 1 & 3; Ensemble 360 cellist, Gemma Rosefield,

Gemma Rosefield, in a brief interaction with the audience between the two suites, told us that she was playing on a cello made in Naples in 1704 by Alessandro Gagliano, and was formerly owned and played by George IV. Thus, it had been made before the Cello Suites were composed, and think of how many people have played that cello over its 320 year history! Somehow that summed up the impact the cello suites have on me when I listen to them (though I have never heard them live before, which is always going to be a more intense and concentrated experience) – the sense of time stopping, being outside time, their calm peaceful melancholy being for all time. This came both from the idea of this cello before is having been playing before the music it was playing was created, and the world the suites take you into. The music somehow is timeless, and different from other Bach – less Baroque in sound, somehow more contemporary, and this was emphasised by the contemporary piece (something by David Matthews composed for Ms Rosefield) which almost could have been a 7^th movement of the 3^rd suite. I found it helpful too that Ms Rosefield told us before the concert that the heart of each suite was the Sarabande, always the 4^th movement, not something I had really thought about, and which enabled me to ‘place’ the other movements.

So – a lovely evening and, as far as I could tell, extremely well played