(Video link here.) Derek Brown‘s version of Bach’s Cello Suite No.1 in G Major Prelude played on tenor sax in a huge empty warehouse is a pretty surprising rendition of the classic. He jazz’s it up, beat boxes it, and sends it reverberating around the space.

We listened, then went back to its roots,listening to the great Anner Bylsma’s wondrous “straight” version from Bach: The Six Unaccompanied Cello Suites, BWV 1007-1012 that we’ve loved for years (and which totally knocked YoYo Ma out of the water)…

Written around 1720, the cello suite has been inscribed for many instruments, so we went on the hunt for some other interpretations and found it played on a…

….ukulele (video link here)…

….and steel drum (video link here)…

…among many others, including tuba, trumpet, mandolin, harp, marimba…

and wondered at the enduraning resonance of Bach’s essential riff, inspiring people to make it their own for 300 years.

They are all worlds apart but still rich with Bach’s crazy beauty….

a lovely start, or refreshment for the day.

 

 

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