Paolo Pandolfo Tickets

A unique slant on a well-known work. The viola da gamba has very different timbres from the cello.

With a devoted following of both early music and contemporary music fans, Pandolfo, as always, gave a concert truly worthy of the standing ovations he received. Playing one of the more difficult instruments to master, Pandolfo makes playing it look almost easy and one almost forgot that he was playing solo with no accompanist. Shall willingly stand in line in the cold for another opportunity to hear him.

The Bach suites for unaccompanied cello sound so different on a six-stringed instrument than on the four. I had heard Zuill Bailey play them two weeks before. Pandolfo's Bach suites sound much more ethereal than Bailey's robust version. It must be because the four stringed instrument is easier to play then the six stringed. I prefer the four string version; my ear is more attuned to the robust playing of Janos Starker, Mischa Maisky and then Yo Yo Ma. Pandolfo is clearly an expert, erudite student and player of Baroque music on the six string viola da gamba. But I thought it was harder to understand the music played on this instrument. The notes should have given the number of the Bach suite, not just the BWV number.