Renowned Dutch cellist Viola de Hoog presents an outstanding new recording of the greatest of all solo cello masterworks, Johann Sebastian Bach’s extraordinary Six Suites for Solo Cello. Unique in the solo repertoire, Bach’s six suites represent the musical summit for all cellists.

For three decades, period instrument cellist Viola de Hoog has straddled at the highest international level the worlds of both period instrument performance – playing as soloist, principal cellist and guest principal with many of the world’s greatest historic instrument orchestras including Concerto Köln, Netherlands Bach Society, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Tafelmusik Toronto, Anima Aeterna and currently The King’s Consort – and also the ‘modern’ world, playing cello for twenty years in the world-famous Schönberg Quartet. 

For this recording, Viola de Hoog plays a remarkable baroque cello from 1750 by the great Italian maker, Giovanni Battista Guadagnini – an instrument perfect for Bach’s music. For the sixth suite, which demands a five-string cello, she plays an equally rare Bohemian instrument dating from the late 18th century, whose unusually large size results in a rich sonority rarely heard in this unusual variant of the cello family.

Recorded by distinguished engineer Adriaan Verstijnen in the perfect acoustic of the Oude Dorpskerk, Bunnik – a historic Dutch church near Utrecht dating back to the twelfth century which has hosted many fine period instrument recordings – this recording is deeply musical yet historically faithful, thoughtful yet inspired. Extensive presentation includes 48 page booklet with authoritative liner note in four languages (English, Dutch, French & German) by renowned Bach expert Prof. Greta Haenen, together with session photographs, and reproductions from Anna Magdalena Bach’s manuscript.