Miklos Perenyi

Miklós Perényi – J.S. Bach: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6, BWVV 1007-1012 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:24:21 minutes | 2,72 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hungaroton

Johann Sebastian Bach’s six suites for solo cello are among the best known and most difficult compositions in the musical repertoire. Miklós Perényi, one of the greatest cellists of his generation, and a world-famous exponent of his instrument, recorded these masterpieces for Hungaroton 40 years ago. Now after four decades we can once more hear his unforgettable performance of these key works. Born in Hungary, he began cello lessons at the age of five with Miklós Zsámboki, a student of David Popper. At the age of nine, he gave his first concert in Budapest and went on to study between 1960 and 1964 with Enrico Mainardi in Rome and, in Budapest, with Ede Banda. In 1963 he became a prizewinner at the International Pablo Casals Cello Competition in Budapest. Casals invited him to his master classes in Puerto Rico in 1965 and 1966, and he went on to become a frequent visitor to the Marlboro Festival. In 1974, Miklós Perényi joined the faculty at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, where he has held a professorship since 1980. He was honoured with the Kossuth-Prize in 1980 and the Bartók-Pásztory-Prize in 1987.

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Miklos Perenyi – Britten, Bach, Ligeti (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/44.1 kHz | Time – 00:57:55 minutes | 575 MB | Genre: Classical
Official Digital Download – Source: Qobuz | @ ECM Records GmbH
Recorded: November 2009, Auditorio Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano

Miklós Perényi plays Benjamin Britten’s Third Suite op. 87 and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite VI D-Dur BWV 1012, making plain an historical interconnection. Britten wrote his cello suites for Rostropovich, inspired by hearing him playing the Bach suites. Rostropovich hailed all of Britten’s cello suites as masterpieces but singled out the third (written 1971) for special praise: “sheer genius”, in his words. Into the fabric of the thematic material Britten wove fragments of melodies from Russian folk songs, only allowing them to emerge fully in the final movement. On this disc, Bach’s last cello suite follows Britten’s, and Perényi’s Bach dances with elegance and energy. The album concludes with a return to Hungary, and Ligeti’s cello sonata of 1948-1953. Ligeti released the piece for publication only in 1979, so it figures in the chronology (as Paul Griffiths points out in the notes) both before and after the Britten. This disc is Perényi’s first ECM solo recital, and follows his brilliant performance, alongside András Schiff, in the 2001/2 recordings of the Complete Music for Piano and Violoncello by Beethoven.

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