Matt Haimovitz

There’s such a humanity to Bach
and every possible human emotion
from joy and humor and laughter
to sorrow and loss and
somehow reaches to the heart of human nature.

In fact it was because of Bach that
I started to rethink how I was presenting this music.
Music that I love so much.

I’ve taken Bach to so many different kind of venues
and different audiences, stripping away
hundreds of years of concert hall tradition
that really didn’t have anything to do with Bach
and the way his music was performed.

So much of Bach was premiered in coffeehouses
and he even charged his employers for quite a few beers.

I’ve actually played where these cello suites were first performed
in Köthen, in Prince Leopold’s castle in this very small town
in the eastern part of Germany.

I could kind of imagine Prince Leopold and a select few of his friends,
couples dancing, and others just having a conversation in the back.

So really it’s not unlike some of the experiences
that I have on the road now playing in clubs
like the Iota and other rock-and-roll clubs.

For me, the Bach cello suites
and hearing the solo cello,
it’s somehow as close as one can get
to how a human brain and heart work.