GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Berkshire Bach Society concludes its 2024-2025 season on June 28, 5pm, at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Stockbridge with a solo recital by Cleveland Orchestra cellist Dane Johansen.

 

The program includes three suites for unaccompanied cello by J.S. Bach, Benjamin Britten, and Gaspar Cassadó.

 

"We're pleased to present a recital by Dane Johansen to complete our 35th season," said Terrill McDade, Executive Director of the Berkshire Bach Society.  "Mr. Johansen has chosen a program that shows the lasting influence of J.S. Bach and how composers in different generations followed his example in exploring the cello as a solo instrument. The seeds of the later works are embedded in the originals, particularly the sixth suite with its extraordinary range and technical challenges. The recital is an opportunity to experience the rich sonority of unaccompanied cello—so close to the human voice—as it speaks to us in multiple dialects—from Baroque to post-Romantic to Modern. Regardless of style or time, Dane Johansen's exquisite playing of this repertoire touches the heart in a profound way."

 

Berkshire Bach audiences may remember Dane Johansen as the cellist featured in the film Strangers on the Earth that opened the BBS Portals season in September.  In 2014 Johansen walked the Camino de Santiago, the nearly 600-mile ancient pilgrimage route from France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, with his cello on his back and stops in churches along the way to play Bach cello suites.  During the trek he attracted a growing audience of fellow pilgrims and experienced a revolution in his thinking about performing music for others.

 

A native of Fairbanks, Alaska, Johansen is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. a past member of the Escher String Quartet, and a member of the Cleveland Orchestra since 2016.  A decade after his memorable Camino, he brings his artistry to Berkshire Bach and showcases just how Bach's original model reached across the centuries to prompt English composer Benjamin Britten and Spanish cellist Gaspar Cassadó to create cello suites of their own. In Britten's case, the work was written for Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich who gave the first performance in 1965. For Gaspar Cassadó, the work was written and dedicated to a friend in 1926 and interpreted by the composer, a protégé of cello great Pablo Casals.  Casals is credited with rediscovering and popularizing Bach's suites for solo cello in the early 20th century.   

 

Join Berkshire Bach for Dane Johansen:  Solo Cello Suites at 5pm on Saturday, June 28, at St. Paul's Church in Stockbridge, MA.  Tickets: $45 Nonmembers | $40 Berkshire Bach Members | $10 Card to Culture.  Children and Students with valid ID are admitted free.

 

Visit www.berkshirebach.org/events for more information and to purchase tickets.