Bach on Nine Strings.

Two violoncelli piccoli, one with four strings, the other with five, totaling nine strings: It is as if a new instrument has been born, an organ with strings instead of pipes, to perform virtuosic polyphonic masterworks with a larger, enriched sound palette. Based on Gustav Leonhardt's piano transcriptions of the suites, sonatas and partitas, Mario Brunello gives three of Bach's solo pieces for violin and cello without accompaniment a new tonal dimension and makes the polyphony, previously limited to just four strings, audible. His old friend Mauro Valli, who was already heard at Arcana with his personal reinterpretation of the cello suites (Bach in Bologna A459, 2019), stands by his side. "I do not see it as a transcription, or even as a version for other instruments. I would simply like to call it a phenomenon - something that exists, but - like certain natural phenomena, such as a rainbow - only becomes visible under certain circumstances." (Mario Brunello)