Alon Sariel (mandolin). Johann Sebastian Bach - CD Review, May 20^th, 2026

Johann Sebastian Bach - Suite No. 3, BWV 1009, in C major; Chaconne from Partita No. 2, BWV 1004, in D minor (arrangements for mandolin by Alon Sariel).

Music by Johann Sebastian Bach, recorded by one of the most acclaimed mandolin players in the world - it's what I'm presenting as part of the Albums of the Year 2026 project on Radio România Muzical. The album was recorded in October 2024 at the Kaiserslautern Radio Studio by Alon Sariel, an Israeli musician who turned 40 this month.

His new disc, released by the Pentatone label, is part of a extensive collection titled Plucked Bach. It is the third CD in this set dedicated to the famous Baroque composer and features arrangements by Alon Sariel for various types of mandolin, based on scores written by Johann Sebastian Bach for solo violin or cello; it also includes two short works by Bach's contemporaries-Nicola Matteis and Johann Paul von Westhoff.

One of the central pieces on the album's program is Suite No. 3, BWV 1009, in C major, which Bach created for solo cello during the period he spent as chapelmaster at Köthen, between 1717 and 1723. Alon Sariel has arranged the score for Tuscan mandolin and offers this piece in an expressive performance, contrapuntally flawless and rigorously grounded in the techniques of the Bachian style.

Alon Sariel was born on May 11^th, 1986 in Israel. He studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance; between 2007 and 2012 he was a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim, won prizes in major music competitions, and perfected himself at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, then at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater from Hannover. As a mandolin player, but also as a conductor, he has collaborated with most of the orchestras in Israel and with ensembles in London, Brussels, Berlin and Hamburg, presenting varied programs centered on 18th-century music. In 2025 he recorded his first album of concertante pieces, works from the classical repertoire for mandolin and orchestra, recorded with the Cologne Academy - an album that I broadcast last year on Radio România Muzical.

And this month, Alon Sariel released a new disc from his collection dedicated to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, an album that includes the Chaconne from Partita No. 2, BWV 1004, in D minor. Alon Sariel says: "My relationship with this score goes back to my teenage years, but although I have played the partita in its entirety in many concerts, I wasn't sure about recording the last movement, the Chaconne. Paradoxically, the closer I get to it, the further away it seems. Looking at this divine music, I always think that it is perfect on paper and carries an immense spiritual weight."