Uncategorized Archives - Close Encounters With Music

Two leading Bach interpreters, Colin Carr and Yehuda Hanani will embark an unaccompanied voyage on Sunday, February 23, 2025 at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA

For CEWM artistic director Yehuda Hanani, the suites are the end-all in classical music.

“The wonders of Bach are inexhaustible. After decades of intimate dialogue with the suites, alone, in performance, and in masterclasses (where one is inspired as much as one inspires), I am still awed by the mastery of Johann Sebastian: his architectural strength and harmonic daring, the human truth reflected in his balancing tension and release.”

Hanini’s colleague, the distinguished British cellist Colin Carr would agree. On Sunday, February 23, these two leading Bach interpreters embark on a journey traversing his Six Suites, the apogee of the cello repertoire. Filled with mystery and beauty, blasted through with rapture, every note is a bold statement. Music that first flowed from the composer’s quill in the early 1700’s, it belongs to no specific time or place. At the same time as it floats in the heavenly spheres, it provides plenty of earthly pleasures—courtly music, riffs, Celtic jigs, the merriment of a tavern musician, and glimpses of modern minimalism. The title “Unaccompanied” is a bit of a misnomer: a single cellist takes on numerous voices, making the music a drama for three or four characters played by one actor! If angels danced, this is the music that would no doubt accompany them on their gramophone. Hanani and Carr will alternate playing the six works on legendary instruments, both built in 1730 —Carr on his Matteo Gofriller made in Venice, and Hanani on his David Tecchler made in Rome.

Colin Carr has been hailed for his “supreme technique and ebullience” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). He appearsthroughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher. He has played with major orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, Montréal and all the major orchestras of Australia and New Zealand. Conductors with whom he has worked include Rattle, Gergiev, Dutoit, Elder, Skrowasczewski and Marriner. He has been a regular guest at the BBC Proms and has twice toured Australia. As a member of the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio, he recorded and toured extensively for 20 years. He is a frequent visitor to international chamber music festivals worldwide and has appeared often as a guest with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets and with New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Recent CD releases include the complete Bach suites on the Wigmore Live label. Read bio here.

Named “one of the most polished performers of the post-Starker generation and a consistently expressive artist” by The New York Times, CEWM artistic director Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements across the globe. He has won wide international recognition as soloist, chamber musician and inspiring pedagogue. His concerto appearances have been with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, San Antonio, New Orleans, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Irish National Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Taipei and Seoul symphonies among many other orchestras, and he has toured with I Solisti de Zagreb, conducting from the cello. A frequent guest at Aspen, Bowdoin, Chautauqua, Yale at Norfolk, Great Lakes, Casals Prades, Finland Festival, Ottawa, Oslo, Round Top Institute, Manchester, and the Australia Chamber Music festivals, he has collaborated in performances with preeminent fellow musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Dawn Upshaw, Yefim Bronfman, Eliot Fisk, the Tokyo, Vermeer, Muir, Escher, Ariel, Colorado, and Manhattan quartets. In New York City, he has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan Museum. A three-time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant, he has inspired scores of cellists as Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and previously served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. In recognition of his distinguished teaching, he was given the title of honorary professor of the Tianjin Conservatory, China. He now is a member of the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York City. Read bio here.