Album insights
Miklós Perényi performs a historical connection by playing Benjamin Britten’s Third Suite op. 87 and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite VI D-Dur BWV 1012. Britten composed his cello suites with Rostropovich in mind, influenced by listening to him play Bach's suites. Rostropovich praised Britten's suites, especially the third (from 1971), calling it "sheer genius." Britten intertwined Russian folk song melodies within his thematic material, revealing them fully in the final movement. Following Britten's work, Perényi delivers a graceful and energetic performance of Bach's final cello suite. The album finishes back in Hungary with Ligeti’s cello sonata from 1948-1953, first published in 1979, framing itself before and after Britten in the timeline. This piece, significant in contemporary music, reflects Ligeti's deep connection with the cello as a composer. Perényi’s first ECM solo recital in this collection succeeds his outstanding collaboration with András Schiff in the Complete Music for Piano and Violoncello by Beethoven recordings from 2001/2.