PACM004:
Suite No. 4 in E flat for Cello, BVW 1010 - J.
S. Bach
MP3
price
Enrico
Mainardi Released
in 1951 as Decca LXT 2673
(Duration: 26'18")
Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Bourées
I & II
Gigue
Play
sample movement:
Enrico
Mainardi (1897-1976) was born in Milan and began playing cello
at just three years old. At the age of eight he made his public debut,
playing a sonata by Beethoven, and subsequently toured Italy as a child
prodigy. At just thirteen he played the Saint-Saëns concerto with
Sir Henry Wood and his orchestra. The First World War forced him to give
the instrument up for 4 years, and when he picked it up again he found
he had forgotten how to play.
In
disgust, he studied composition and piano in Rome and only resumed cello
studies at the age of 24, going to Berlin to study under Hugo Becker.
Between 1929-31 he played under Erich Kleiber at the Berlin state opera,
and, in 1933, was appointed professor of cello at the Academia di Santa
Cecilia in Rome. In 1941 he succeeded Becker at the Hochschule in Berlin.
He was well known as a performer in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Scandinavia,
and as a teacher in France and England.
As
a performer Maindardi went on to make a number of recordings, both as
a soloist and in small chamber ensembles, most famously as a member of
a Piano Trio alongside Edwin Fischer and Wolfgang Schneiderhann. (NB.
Edwin Fischer's interpretation of Bach's Well-Tempered
Clavier features elsewhere on this site.)
It
is interesting to note that latterly there seems to have grown something
of a cult following around Mainardi, most especially with regard to some
of the more rare records he made with DGG in the 1950's, copies of which
have been recently selling for several hundreds of dollars each on Internet
auction sites.
This
excellent recording was another winner of a star award in The Record
Guide reviews of the 1950's, and is well worth a place in anyone's
collection. Another superb restoration by Peter Harrison of disk2disc.