Anja Lechner Solo

Anja Lechner is a regular: she has played here with the pianist Francois Couturier, the young piano virtuoso Raúl da Costa and the bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi, with whom she has recorded some of her more than 30 albums. Composers such as Arvo Pärt have written delicate works for her. It is almost surprising that it is only now that her first solo recording has been released by ECM - recorded in Munich's Himmelfahrtskirche and produced by Manfred Eicher.

What she achieves is masterful: not only does she perform two of Bach's suites for cello with great light-heartedness and sophistication. She also connects the Bach universe with two other cosmos: that of the early classicist Carl Friedrich Abel and the Scotsman Tobias Hume. Both were masters on the viola da gamba. Lechner transfers the pieces to the cello, but in her playing she thinks along with the old instrument. Kristina Maidt-Zinke writes in the booklet: "One is amazed at the lightness and inner logic with which three musical worlds have touched each other here." But they don't just touch each other - Lechner translates them into the present. The Friedenskirche provides a worthy setting for this solo revelation.