Arts Center Incheon (아트센터인천) will present a solo recital by world-renowned cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras on October 4. On this stage, Queyras will perform the complete unaccompanied Cello Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach in a single day, an event that can be experienced only once and only at Arts Center Incheon in Korea.
 [코리안투데이] Poster for the Jean-Guihen Queyras cello recital © 장형임 기자 |
Arts Center Incheon announced that it will host a recital by cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras on October 4. At the heart of this performance is the feat of playing, on a single stage in one day, the complete set of Bach’s unaccompanied Cello Suites, works revered among cellists as ‘the ultimate reason for being and the scripture of music.’ Queyras’s complete-cycle Bach performance will take place at only one venue in Korea, Arts Center Incheon, and only once, drawing keen attention from classical music fans.
Bach’s complete unaccompanied Cello Suites are landmark masterpieces of the cello repertoire, realizing the essence of melody, harmony, and polyphony with nothing but a single cello and no accompaniment. Once regarded merely as an accompanying instrument, the cello achieves melody and harmony on its own in these works, which were long forgotten until cellist Pablo Casals discovered the score in a second-hand bookshop in Barcelona in 1889 and, after decades of study, brought them to the world, finally establishing them among the great masterpieces.
Through six keys of his own choosing, Bach deeply explored the possibilities of the cello’s timbre and harmony. In the fifth suite, he called for ‘scordatura,’ a technique of tuning the highest A string down by one step to draw out a heavy and distinctive tone, while the sixth suite was originally written for a special five-string cello, carrying a brilliance that pushes beyond the instrument’s limits.
The French-born Jean-Guihen Queyras is a master who has earned acclaim from audiences and critics worldwide for his profound interpretations spanning from the Baroque to contemporary music, as well as his refined technique. He collaborated for years with Pierre Boulez, a giant of contemporary music, and has achieved unrivaled results in early-music repertoire with ensembles such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. A founding member of the Arcanto Quartet, he has pursued chamber music projects with world-class performers including Isabelle Faust, Alexandre Tharaud, and the Chemirani brothers, and is an exclusive artist with the Harmonia Mundi label. He currently serves as a professor at the Freiburg University of Music in Germany and as artistic director of the Ensemble Festival de Haute-Provence in Forcalquier, France.
This performance holds great significance in that audiences can encounter Queyras’s Bach grown even deeper since his first complete recording in 2007. Over seven years working on a dance project with the Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Queyras gained the insight that ‘Bach’s suites are fundamentally rooted in dance music.’ Breathing alongside the dancers’ movements on stage, he arrived at an original interpretation that unfolds the upper-voice melodies with jazz-like flexibility within the rigorous structure of the bass line. His second complete album, released in 2024 embodying this philosophy, won the ‘Diapason d’Or.’
Building Bach’s vast musical architecture with a single instrument, this performance is a rare opportunity for classical enthusiasts. In particular, as the complete cycle performed in a single day will be held only once in Korea, it carries meaning in allowing Incheon residents to experience a world-renowned master’s mature interpretation firsthand in their own region. Ticketing and further details are available through the Arts Center Incheon website (www.aci.or.kr) and its main phone line (032-453-7700).
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