All this week on Classic Drive, Lorcan will feature music from Ailbhe McDonagh's new album, Bach Complete Solo Cello Suites.
Cellist Ailbhe McDonagh releases a new album on the STEINWAY & SONS label featuring Bach's complete Suites for Solo Cello - some of the most beautiful, challenging, and intricate works composed for the instrument.
Bach: Complete Solo Cello Suites was recorded at the TUDublin Concert Hall in 2022, on the Steinway & Sons record label, New York. Ailbhe McDonagh co-produced this album alongside Orla McDonagh, with Ben Rawlins as sound engineer. Notably, this is the first recording of the full Bach Cello Suites by an Irish cellist.
As Ailbhe writes in her program notes, "Bach's Cello Suites are some of the most beautiful, challenging, and complex works composed for the instrument. Bach’s ability to create counterpoint on a solo instrument is astounding. He really makes the cello sound like an orchestra rather than just one instrument. Composers the world over (myself included) have been inspired by him to compose solo suites for the cello. The variety of characters, moods, rhythmic interest and phrase structure heard in these suites keep the performer engaged and eager to perform these works over and over again."