Suites & Roses Katharina Deserno

• Violeta Dinescu (b. 1953): Sieben Rosen:
• 1Sieben Rosen (I)01:11
• 2Sieben Rosen (II)01:40
• 3Sieben Rosen (III)01:10
• 4Sieben Rosen (IV)01:53
• 5Sieben Rosen (V)01:15
• 6Sieben Rosen (VI)01:27
• 7Sieben Rosen (VII)01:25
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Suite Nr. 1 G-Dur:
• 8Suite Nr. 1 G-Dur - Prélude02:13
• 9Suite Nr. 1 G-Dur - Allemande05:32
• 10Suite Nr. 1 G-Dur - Courante02:48
• 11Suite Nr. 1 G-Dur - Sarabande03:19
• 12Suite Nr. 1 G-Dur - Menuet03:30
• 13Suite Nr. 1 G-Dur - Gigue01:53
• Violeta Dinescu: Kleine Suite:
• 14Kleine Suite (I)02:57
• 15Kleine Suite (II)03:51
• 16Kleine Suite (III)04:13
• 17Kleine Suite (IV)03:59
• 18Kleine Suite (V)03:31
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite Nr. 2 d-Moll:
• 19Suite Nr. 2 d-Moll - Prélude04:40
• 20Suite Nr. 2 d-Moll - Allemande04:33
• 21Suite Nr. 2 d-Moll - Courante02:10
• 22Suite Nr. 2 d-Moll - Sarabande04:58
• 23Suite Nr. 2 d-Moll - Menuet03:21
• 24Suite Nr. 2 d-Moll - Gigue02:54
• Violeta Dinescu:
• 25Abendandacht04:51
• Total Runtime01:15:14

Info for Suites & Roses

On her solo album Suites & Roses German cellist Katharina Deserno combines cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach with works by Romanian composer Violeta Dinescu (*1953) to whose music she has a close connection.

The programme begins with the cycle Seven Roses, completed in 2012, which refers to the poem of the same name by Bert Brecht. With each of its seven movements it reveals an individual character (of the seven roses). It is expressive music, lyrically and poetically played.

Deserno chose the first two of the Bach Suites, which she beautifully differentiates, very dance-like, with rather dark colours. The Small Suite by Violeta Dinescu (2018) also has something dance-like, but the imaginative and expressive gestures of the music are at the same time also very rhetorical and theatrical, quasi clownish, not in the sense of pure fun, but rather of a Pierrot from the Commedia dell’Arte, with corresponding emotions: sensitive, melancholic and lonely, playful and audacious at the same time. The gripping performance by Katharina Deserno is wonderfully evocative.

The program ends with Violeta Dinescu’s Abendandacht, a very sensuous work that leaves the listener deep in thoughts.

The juxtaposition of music by Bach and Dinescu ultimately shows that what the Romanian composer composes for solo cello in no way fades before Bach’s masterpieces. Dinescu’s compositions are good pieces that leave a lasting impression. (Remy Franck, pizzicato.lu)

Katharina Deserno, cello

Katharina Deserno
born in Frankfurt/Main, is famous for her wide repertoire and her exciting concert programming as well as for her sensitive and expressive playing. Her international concert activities include appearances as a soloist i.a. with the Spanish National Orchestra, and as a chamber musician. Katharina performs as part of a duo with Serbian pianist Nenad Lečić, since more than 15 years. Her artistic work encompasses numerous world premieres of compositions written for her; concert tours and festival invitations, radio broadcasts at WDR, Deutschlandfunk, Radio Clasica, ORF i.a. and CD-productions. Reviewers outline her “perfect playing” and “perfection of technique” (Rondo Magazine).

On her debut CD “Hommage à Clara Schumann” (2011), she presented music for cello and piano and for cello solo by women composers; on subsequent albums for KALEIDOS and WERGO she has recorded music by Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Grechaninov, Konrad Lang and Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as chamber music by Barbara Heller. All recordings include world-premieres and have been praised highly by the press. On her just recently published CD she presents a solo program with music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Violeta Dinescu. First reviews write about a “an impressing recording”, “enthralling interpretation” and “an extraordinary, touching CD” (pizzicato, Musenblätter).

Katharina Deserno received her artistic education in Frankfurt, Paris and Cologne from Maria Kliegel, Gerhard Mantel and Philipp Muller; further inspiration and artistic impulses came i.a. from Janos Starker, Siegfried Palm, Wolfgang Boettcher, György Kurtág, José Luís de Delás, and Rainer Zipperling for baroque cello. Already during her studies she became an assistant to Maria Kliegel. Being one of the youngest teachers at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, she established her own cello class in 2008. Meanwhile, many of her students are prizewinners of international and national competitions. Katharina is regularly invited to give master classes for young cellists. Her book on the history of women cellists was published in 2018 by Böhlau publishers. Her teaching book for young cellists, published by Schott, was a sheet music top seller for several years.

In 2015, Katharina Deserno became professor at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. She is artistic director of Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Frankfurt.

Katharina Deserno plays an Italian Violoncello by Carlo Antonio Testore from 1712 which has been generously loaned to her by a German Maecenas.

Booklet for Suites & Roses