Bach Suite No 3 - Prelude & Allemande - performed on a pre-Bach cello, Baroque bow, gut strings

Cello - Georg Mertens 0:01 - Prelude 3:14 - Allemande I follow here the earliest manuscript's tempo indication: presto. The writer, Bach's friend Kellner can't have made it up! - I see this Prelude in C major as a sister piece to the Prelude E major from violin Partita No 3. For me the tempo presto indicates also, that the Allemande needs to be slower than the Prelude. To the cello used in this performance: Originally this instrument was made as a larger 3 stringed bass violin (before the name cello existed!) originally made c 1500-1600 in Austria or Bohemia, cut back between 1700-1750 to the size of our normal 4 string cello. I bought it in 1969. All my teacher didn't like it, because of its unusual dimensions, it "would wreck my technique"! Today it is set up with wound gut strings. I play it with a Baroque bow, Baroque tuning - a bit more than a semitone lower than our standard A. p.s. on this cello the bridge curve is quite flat, the bow has a outward camber, which makes it very suitable for arpeggios, but you might notice, sometimes a neighbour string might be touched! -- For an insight into the complex history of the Bach Cello Suites including the more than 80 editions see: http://www.georgcello.com/bachcellosu... This recording belongs to the "Bach Cello Suites Project" - part of my online cello course, which includes detailed lessons to all movements, sheet music attached, see:   / collections   -- To vibrato in Baroque Music: The Baroque composer Geminiani wrote in 1752: "Use vibrato wherever you can, it sweetens the sound". Mozart's father Leopold distinguished already between slow and fast vibrato, increasing and decreasing speed of vibrato, published 1750. The notion that vibrato had not been used during the Baroque period is a misunderstanding. A group of Prussian Berlin musicians including Quantz and Telemann published a hostile attitude towards vibrato, mentioning multiple musicians who used vibrato in their orchestra (!) - but used it "wrong". This attitude remained fashion in Berlin and closer by courts until 1900 (Joseph Joachim, who premiered the Brahms violin concerto without vibrato), it has in fact nothing to do with Baroque. -- Georg Mertens is a performer / composer / teacher living in the Blue Mountains / Australia For my step by step online cello course see   / georgcello   then go to "collections" / for sheet music go to "shop" website: http://www.georgcello.com youtube playlists:    / @georgcello