The internationally-acclaimed cellist combines a divine Bach suite with expressive Kodály and a work by Joan Tower written especially for her.

This programme is inspired by the world-famous cellist’s Fragments project – a set of multisensory works that she unfolds in a series of venues in America, combining the 36 movements of Bach’s solo cello suites with 27 new commissions. Today we hear For Alisa by Joan Tower alongside Bach’s Third Cello Suite: self-assured, good-humoured, playful. Kodály’s Sonata of 1915 was perhaps the first great work for solo cello since Bach’s two centuries previously: it wraps together influences of Debussy, Bartók and Hungarian folk in a distinctive language that is all the composer’s own.

Daniel Kidane’s Sarabande completes this programme drawn from the innovative project which aims to present music in a seamless flow and without explanation, so that it can land with the listener with all the more impact. Of the piece and the project, Kidane says that it is “wonderful to be in a performance space where preconceived ideas are set aside and you immerse yourself and let go” . A treat is in store from this compellingly virtuosic artist.

Alisa Weilerstein cello