J. S. Bach: Mein Geist (My Spirit)

Since its founder Damien Guillon left in 2024 to pursue new adventures, Le Banquet Céleste has been led by a team of loyal musicians. Committed to continuing its exploration of the Baroque repertoire with the aesthetic rigour that earned the ensemble recognition over the past fifteen years, its first recording under collective leadership offers a programme that showcases cantatas by J. S. Bach with piccolo cello: ‘Smaller in size, the violoncello piccolo has a truly special timbre that can be grave and passionate, but also wiry and sensitive. In the arias where it engages in concertante dialogue with the vocal soloist, it most often embodies the voice of tenderness and consolation, and the confident promise of the hereafter’, writes musicologist Corinne Schneider. The Sixth Suite for Cello, BWV 1012, completes the programme: ‘Radiant and joyful, it sounds like a deliverance, in perfect accord with the themes developed in these two cantatas,’ she concludes. Céline Scheen, Alexander Chance, Thomas Hobbs and Benoît Arnould are the vocal soloists, and Julien Barre plays the piccolo cello.

Le Banquet Céleste – baroque ensemble