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BACH ABEL HUME
For her first solo-violoncello album on ECM’s New Series, Anja Lechner devotes herself to a particularly unique convergence of three composers from vastly different contexts: JS Bach, Carl Friedrich Abel and Tobias Hume. In the past, her extensive discography has captured the cellist as part of the renowned Rosamunde Quartett, as well as alongside seminal artists from both trans-idiomatic sound worlds and the realm of classical music, gracing her with rare musical farsightedness. With her distinct perspective on works composed for both violoncello and viola da gamba, Lechner sheds a fresh light on music written within a span of two centuries. Framing the first two solo suites from the famous group of six Bach wrote for the violoncello at its heart, the programme encompasses Abel and Hume compositions, originally conceived for viola da gamba, which are given new colour and breadth through Lechner’s interpretation on cello – In parts newly arranged by herself. And at the end, as Kristina Maidt-Zinke notes in the album-accompanying liner notes, “one marvels at the lightness and inner logic with which three worlds have ever so gently touched one another”. The album was recorded at the Himmelfahrtskirche in Munich and produced by Manfred Eicher.
Die Nacht
Quasi parlando
Hieroglyphen der Nacht
Nuit blanche
Tarkovsky Quartet
Nostalghia
Ojos Negros
Navidad de los Andes
El Encuentro
Kultrum
Moderato cantabile
Chants, Hymns and Dances
leggiero, pesante
Mirror
Il Pergolese
Melos
Her First Dance
Night
Rosamunde Quartett
The Seven Words
String Quartets – Tigran Mansurian
IXXU
Notturno
Song of Songs
Beyond The Borders
Music for the Film
La notte

Lontano

Anja Lechner / François Couturier

After their highly acclaimed 2014 debut album as a duo, Moderato cantabile, Anja Lechner and François Couturier widen the scope of music even further. The duo sings in a voice of its own, be it with original compositions, free improvisations, drawing upon a Bach cantata or an Argentine folk lament or subtle inclusion of works by Henri Dutilleux, Giya Kancheli or Anouar Brahem. Having internalized influences and repertoire the German cellist and the French pianist not only locate atmospheric and expressive connections among far-flung sources, but also create new music that reflects and refracts its inspirations.

“With François, I have often set off on journeys to foreign melodies. This requires mutual trust, courage and imagination.
Together we search as if through various countries, exploring, shaping, struggling, rejecting, and finding new forms to finally sing the song.”
Anja Lechner