Oblique Strategies

JS Bach: Cello Suite No. 1; Brett

Dean: Eleven Oblique Strategies;

Kodály: Solo Cello Sonata

Andrei Ionita (cello)

Orchid Classics ORC100096 70:58 mins A cellist who makes their debut with Bach’s most famous solo suite, the Kodály Solo Sonata and a world premiere is a cellist prepared to take a risk. But Andrei Ionita is not merely ambitious: the young Romanian is prodigiously gifted, with all the technique, character and courage to deliver such a programme. A powerful live performer, this recording captures much of his warm intensity.

His Bach Suite No. 1 is unshowy and sincere, respectful of both music and instrument, a rich, chestnut-toned Rogeri (1671). He’s not shy of adding a dash of subtle decoration, but there’s an underlying discipline you feel you can trust.

His ‘Courante’ shows spirited inspiration, his minuets are stylish in satisfying contrast to a loudly rumbustious ‘Gigue’. We discover the heights and depths of his capabilities in the Kodály: this is a formidable realisation, dramatically paced, but finally misses the wild abandon of the greatest readings.

Brett Dean’s Eleven Oblique Strategies (2014) was inspired by the cards developed by Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt in the 1970s to stimulate creativity. Each of its tiny movements cleverly captures an idea, from the virtuosic ‘don’t be frightened to show your talents’ to ‘A line has two sides’, which plays with the varied timbres of the same note on different parts of the cello. Henryson’s Black Run is a brilliant bluegrass blast. Helen Wallace

PERFORMANCE ★★★★ RECORDING ★★★★★