Join us on Tuesday, October 1st at 12:10 PM when cellist Juliana Soltis, praised for her "fierce displays of technique, her impassioned rhetoric'"(Gramophone) visits the WRTI Performance Studio with WRTI Host Susan Lewis in advance of a performance at Philadelphia's Christ Church Neighborhood House. Her new CD explores "the long-lost tradition of spontaneous improvisation" in the Bach cello suites.
Juliana performs all over the world as soloist and chamber musician, specializing in historic performance of the Baroque classical cello, violincello piccolo, and viola da gamba. In her new CD, Going Off Script; The Ornamented Suites for Cello, she breaks with 200 years of interpretative tradition to add spontaneous improvisation or ornamentation.
"[Bach] left spaces for the performer to finish the process of composition," she writes. "The suites were never intended to be museum pieces but rather, living works of art."
WRTI PROGRAM:
J.S. BACH: Prelude, Suite No. 1 in G Major
This piece is one of the most recognizable in Classical music, and certainly the most iconic work in any cellist's repertoire! Seeing me with my cello on my back, complete strangers come up to me on subways and airports and sing this Prelude to me, and I love knowing that a work can touch people in such a lasting way.
J.S. Bach: Courante, Suite No. 1 in G Major
This movement is so much fun, and an excellent one for illustrating the concept of ornamentation! Listen carefully for the return of material you've already heard - that's where I'll be improvising on the music to complete Bach's compositional process.
J.S. BACH: Menuets 1 & 2, Suite No. 1 in G Major
When I was 11, I begged my teacher to let me learn the Prelude from this suite. She said I wasn't ready, I swore I was, and so eventually we compromised and I learned these paired Menuets instead - they were my first experience with Bach!
J.S. BACH: Gigue, Suite No. 6 in D Major
This suite was written for a cello with five strings, which can exist in a number of forms, including the violoncello da spalla (played on the shoulder) and the violoncello piccolo. I chose to perform and record this suite on a violoncello piccolo, and I just love the different colors and sounds that are possible on this tiny, five-stringed instrument.
Equal parts performer, scholar, and musical provocateur, cellist Juliana Soltis delights in connecting audiences with the forgotten stories of classical music through historically-informed performance. She performs at Christ Church Neighborhood House on October 4th as part of her 21-city US tour celebrating her album, Going Off Script: The Ornamented Suites for Cello (King Street Records).
When she is not on tour, Juliana enjoys long-distance running, hunting for vintage and antique recordings, and binge-watching tv shows with her rescue greyhound, Rain.
