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Interview with cellist Andrei Ioniță – Bach album

Monday, 20 January 2025 , ora 11.35
 

The publisher Casa Radio released a new album in December 2024 that carries the cellist, Andrei Ionițăsignature including the live concert recording of the complete suites for solo cello by Bach, from an event held at the Romanian Athenaeum on October 29th, 2023.

It is an album that captures a grown-up artist, extremely talented that navigates with certainity, creativity and intelligence in the realm of Johann Sebastian Bach sheet music. A remarkable discographic release that I discussed with Andrei Ioniță at the end of 2024.


First of all, I would like to ask you how do you remember this recital from a year ago, which has now been turned into an album?

This recital was a special project, it was my desire to conquer this Everest of the cello repertoire. And during my artistic residency at the "George Enescu" Philharmonic Orchestra, I wanted to perform this recital on the stage of the Romanian Athenaeum. I don't think another location would fit as perfect as this one for such a repertoire. Also, I thought it was a concert that could also be easily marketed because it is about one artist, one instrument and one composer.

It was truly a challenge, ultimately a test of endurance, to perform the entire cycle of all six suites for solo cello, but it was an unforgettable experience.I was grateful that the hall was full-not just at the beginning, but they also stayed through the third hour of the concert, until the end of the recital. It was, in the end, one of the highlights of my career.


Look at it now, this memorable recital is transformed into an album. It's not the first time when a Bach piece is being included into one of your album. Moreover, for the one made as part of the BBC New Generation Artist project, you also had a suite by Johann Sebastian Bach. I want to ask you, putting these two Bach recordings you now have in your portfolio side by side, how do you see them, how would you characterize them?

Any live recording takes on much freer qualities, and what concerned me when I played Bach's suites was to highlight every detail in the most convincing way possible. We're talking about the articulations of the respective dances, discussing polyphony... the structure of each dance, both in terms of general phrasing and the micro-phrasing of every measure, I tried to bring them out in the most convincing way. Also, obviously, in a live concert, I allowed myself more ornaments. And this combination of structure, along with effervescence and freedom, is what has always attracted me to these suites, and I hope this combination comes across on the CD as well.


What kind of instrument did you used for this performance?

I have performed with an instrument by the luthier Filippo Fasser of Brescia. It is an instrument which I have been using since 2022 and it is a great joy to discover and rediscover it with every opportunity.


How old is this instrument?

Well, this instrument is 20 years old already. It was crafted in 2004. The Giovanni Battista Rogeri instrument that I had borrowed from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben foundation in Hambourg, unfortunately I had to give it back this February. By chance, just last week, I listened to my instrument again in the hands of the next scholarship recipient from the foundation; I was part of the jury for an international competition in Berlin.


I asked about the instrument because for the interpretation of baroque music, the instrument weights a lot of importance or even can determine if the music is being interpreted historically authentic or not, because, of course, we are talking about these movements that have been around for almost a hundred years now, focusing on performing in style or recreating what it would have been like in the composer's time.Was this aspect important for you, or is it generally important to recreate in some way what Bach might have heard? In fact, do we know what Bach could have heard?

After the studies conducted in recent decades, it seems that we could broadly reconstruct the phrasing and articulation methods of that time.What is very interesting about Bach's suites is the issue of editions, because we don't have an original manuscript from the composer, but we rely on six other manuscripts, other sources, one of which is Anna Magdalena Bach.And the way we've tried to decide on bowing and determine certain bow strokes is, in a way, by comparing the mistakes that Anna Magdalena Bach made in her manuscripts for the solo violin works against Johann Sebastian Bach's original, and somehow deducing what mistakes Anna Magdalena Bach might have made in her own manuscript for the cello works.

After all, Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the composers who wrote so clearly! And these structures, both monodic and polyphonic, are so pronounced that you can look at the notes without any bowing indicated there, you can analyze them harmonically, formally, structurally, and decide-of course, based on a certain musical education and musical instinct.

When it comes to interpretation and the baroque style, obviously, non-vibrato was the main way of playing. Vibrato was considered like trills, an ornament. At the same time, it's not wrong for vibrato to appear on a certain note or chord to highlight the warmth of that chord or sound.

For example, I've also heard Mozart's Requiem performed entirely non-vibrato, and I'm not sure if it personally convinced me. But here we're talking about personal tastes.


What I wanted to highlight and seems more important about this album, is actually the music being truly understood by the target audience and generally speaking, I consider that an interpretative version is good and convincing when the artist has something to say, something to convey, both emotionally and intellectually. I also believe that this album covers all those conditions for an excellent interpretation that is free, also brings back something from the 18th century from Bach's time but it is more than that, first of all, because Bach had an excellent mind.

I believe what's important is what we feel Bach's music is telling us today. And I believe it has a lot to say to us.

So, after spending this time delving into Bach's mind, what can you tell us about him?

The 6 suites are indeed an exploration of the composer's inner universe, because every suite has its own character and sets a complete different atmosphere.

Suite I, with that famous prelude, I would even title it Suite-Prelude, because it is marked by much simplicity and somehow sets the tone for the entire cycle.

Suite II is extremely somber, with funeral-like qualities, we could say, and I found it interesting that suddenly there is such a huge contrast from the first suite to the second.

Suite III may be the most harmonious; we're talking about the key of C major, which also uses the instrument's harmonics and its tuning. There, we also have what is probably the second most beloved piece from Bach's cello repertoire, after the prelude from Suite I, namely the Bourrée.

Then, Suite IV it seemed to be the most special. I find it difficult to describe it in a few words. However, we're entering somehow in a territory of the sound of keyboards instruments. Suite IV prelude essentially consists of broken arpeggios in 48 measures, and in each measure of these 48, we have a different harmonic progression. We already can imagine a sound of pedal organ, then a harmonic improvisation above it. It is the suite that personally, I allowed myself the most ornamentation liberties because I felt somehow like an intuition, let's say, the most dance-like, the most baroque of them all.

Suite V is my favorite one. It is the most dramatic. I like the low sounds.That different tuning of the instrument, specifically designed for Suite V, namely lowering the high string, the A string, by a whole tone to G, already brings us into much darker tones. Also, the prelude of Suite V is one of the masterpieces of the entire cycle. It is practically a piece wrote for the organ but transcribed for cello. It is also the most expansive prelude, consisting of an overture-style introduction, a fugato (so we, too, have a fugue in these suites, not just the violinists)... and my favorite movement, which I consider the most unique in the entire cycle of suites, is the Sarabande. It is filled with unheard-of dissonances for its time and already takes us to almost foreign, inhuman realms. But at the same time, you can see-and, in my opinion, this is true of Bach's music in general, even though his works were written with extreme rigor-that there is a breath, which I don't necessarily want to call romantic, but an extremely emotional breath. And yes, his music is the closest to the divine, but at the same time, human suffering also emerges prominently in his works; we can think of all his oratorios as well.

Suite VI is radiant, it is the culmination. Wrote originally for a 5 chord instrument -it should've had added a supplementary chord, but us, modern cellists need to brag about being able to perform it even with a 4 chord instrument- it is the longest suite. Also, it has an extremely slow Allemande but, at the same time, divine. And this expansion, along with all the thematic development throughout the six suites, brings us to a culmination and a climax, effectively, to a joy of playing. What more can I say, this suite it is truly a challenge, obviously, also from the perspective of instrumental, especially when you have to perform it at the end of an already extremely long and demanding recital.

So, being able to perform all of these suites in a single concert represents a test of endurance, but each time,reaching the finishing line of the marathon brings a lot of joy.


I would like to put myself in the shoes of someone who might be hearing these suites for the first time in their life-perhaps listening to them on the radio or maybe buying the CD-and they hear a person playing a cello. I would want to explain to them what this journey really means, because performing these suites in their entirety is, in fact, a life journey. It's about becoming someone else, not just as a performer, technically speaking-because perhaps we need to decipher more what it means to play a single instrument when the music was originally conceived in polyphonic lines, for multiple instruments-and then, I believe there is also a spiritual transformation in the end. Have you been the same after having done this?

I have most certainly changed. I don't necessarily want to say that I, as a performing artist on stage, had a revelation, but I felt throughout the concert that the audience was coming along with me on this journey, and they were extremely receptive.I know there weren't just passionate music lovers present at that concert, but still, they paid the utmost attention to this music. And, in the end, my goal wasn't to boast about my ability to perform all of these suites in a single concert, but rather to present these masterpieces that, as it turns out, were dedicated to the instrument I play. And yes, I felt it was a spiritual journey, and somehow, almost all of us were filled with hope, with that hope for humanity-that things can be better, we can be more understanding with each other, and it's somehow also an exploration of the search for inner or collective peace.

One last question. You were facing the audience, but if you were to turn around now and I were to ask you, after this journey, if you had a question for Johann Sebastian Bach, what would that question be?

Hmm… Where is my script?


The album can be played on Radio România Muzical during the Music box broadcasts on the 13th and 20th of January 2025, 7:00 PM but can be replayed anytime on the project
Records of the year 2025 website.

Cristina Comandașu
Translated by Adina Gabriela Văcărelu,
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I
Corrected by Silvia Petrescu