Flowing movement and attentiveness to nature
Tanja Tetzlaff in conversation with Friederike E. Westerhaus
On this CD you are pairing three Bach cello suites with two pieces by Thorsten Encke. How does this coupling change the experience for the player and for the listener?
I don’t think it changes my way of playing, but certainly our way of listening. We come to hear Bach’s works differently because Encke’s unfamiliar sonorities startle and disturb us. Inserted between the suites, Encke’s pieces open up an entirely different world of sound. After Cracks, we probably feel alarmed, and we thus adopt a different attitude as we approach the 5th Suite, which is quite agitated in itself. Then, after Clouds, which closes with a small thunderstorm, we approach the 6th Suite feeling almost liberated – overjoyed that we have survived a dangerous excursion on thin ice.
With his two pieces, Encke builds bridges among the three suites and refers to them directly in his music. I find that the two works are quite different in character: Cracks is loud and noisy – fragile, as well – whereas Clouds is more melodious at the onset. How have you adapted your playing to the two works in terms of musical character?
Both pieces feature powerful, incredible drama within a small space. Both pieces are threatening, but also gorgeous. While you are out on the thin, dangerous ice, you can survive if you manage to enter into the right sort of vibration. You can go on gliding in that beautiful ice-skating rhythm without falling through. ……(Excerpt from the interview in the CD booklet)
For decades, Tanja Tetzlaff has been one of the most influential musicians of her generation, both
as soloist and chamber musician. Her playing is characterized by a uniquely fine yet powerful and
nuanced sound, which always goes hand in hand with cultivated musicality. Tanja Tetzlaff’s trademark
is her extraordinarily broad repertoire and her desire for new, groundbreaking concert formats.
In April 2021, Tanja Tetzlaff became the first scholarship holder to be awarded the highly endowed
Glenn Gould Bach Fellowship of the city of Weimar. She now has the opportunity to realize a two-year
film project relating Bach’s famous cello suites to nature and climate change issues: Suites4Nature /
Suites for a Wounded World.
Tanja Tetzlaff is a founding member of the Tetzlaff Quartet (Christian Tetzlaff, Elisabeth Kufferath,
and Hanna Weinmeister). She plays a cello by Giovanni Baptista Guadagnini from 1776.
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.
Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.
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