Marc Coppey

The larger part of Bach's work comprised specific commissions and work in posts he occupied in the course of his career. In 1717 for instance, he was appointed 'Kapellmeister' in Köthen, where he was in charge of the prince's chamber music. This temporarily released him from the many obligations of a church musician. He wrote a great deal of keyboard music there, numerous secular pieces - including the French and English suites for harpsichord - violin sonatas and violin concertos and the 'Brandenburg Concertos'. The masterly cello suites gave his music an added dimension. They not only endorse Bach's knowledge of the characteristic idiom and technical potential of the instrument, but also demonstrate his skill at composing contrapuntally for a single-voiced instrument. Bach was able to create a many-voiced fabric, with no accompanying bass part, whose various voices the cellist had to suggest by adjusting the dynamic and phrasing. The young French musician recently added his own highly personal rendition to the long list of recordings of the cello suites. This was fifteen years after winning the 1988 Bach Contest in Leipzig as a student of Janos Starker. They are now performed with maturity and passion.