Art+ Shanghai Gallery had an incredible honor to host Spanish cellist Sergi Boadella and German violinist Daniel Hauptmann performing a combination of 12 compositions for cello and violin by J.S. Bach on February 20th and 21st. The 2-evening concert was an event of unprecedented significance. Never before have six Suites for cello solo and six sonatas and partitas for violin solo have been programmed together in one concert in China.

Sergi Boadella and Daniel Hauptmann share friendship and love for Bach’s music for more than 30 years. After many years of interpreting these pieces separately they have decided to string together to climb the highest peaks of Art.

The 6 Suites for solo cello by J.S. Bach are the best and most difficult pieces ever written for this instrument, and his 6 Sonatas and Partitas for violin are undoubtedly the summit of the violin repertoire.

In July 1720, when Bach returned to Cöthen after accompanying his prince on a long journey, he found that his beloved Maria Barbara, mother of 7 children, was dead and buried. This has triggered a big personal crisis that was reflected in the creation of 12 works for violin and cello solo.

In this kind of intimate diary, Bach expresses himself about life and death. About God and humanity. About his life with the extraordinary woman that was Maria Barbara.
The twelve compositions are full of mystery. The pleasure and pain of existence are interspersed with Bach’s mysticism and religious devotion.