Victor Julien-Laferrière plays Bach and Dutilleux

In the past year, cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière has shot to the top of the classic music scene, winning the "instrumental soloist" category at the last French Victoires de la Musique Classique and the first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Here he gives a recital featuring Bach's Solo Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major and Henri Dutilleux's Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

The three works on this concert's program highlight the cello's polyphonic capabilities. Cheerful and dancing, Bach's Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major was composed during one of his most productive periods of instrumental music composition (1717-1723) while working as Kapellmeister at Prince Leopold's court of Anhalt-Köthen. With its modal colors and polytonal chords, Dutilleux's Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher (1976-1982) are free in form and rhetoric, giving the impression of being improvised.

Photo: © Jean-Baptiste Millot