Oblique Strategies [Andrei Ionita]

Described in The Times as ‘One of the most exciting cellists to have emerged for a decade’, former BBC New Generation Artist Andrei Ionita draws together some of the greatest music ever written for solo cello. Ionita gives the world-premiere recording of Australian composer Brett Dean s 11 Oblique Strategies, from which the album takes its name. Dean s work was inspired by the Oblique Strategy cards invented by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt to spark creativity. In J.S. Bach s exquisite Cello Suite No.1 a sense of harmony is created using a single melodic line, with mesmerising results. Kodály s pioneering Sonata (1915) is another giant of the solo cello repertoire, and the album concludes with Black Run (2001) by contemporary Swedish polymath Svante Henryson.