Alon Sariel - Plucked Bach III (2026)

With Plucked Bach III, Alon Sariel deepens his acclaimed Bach cycle, shaping a sound world marked by exceptional refinement and inward focus. This final volume enriches the series with new colours: a further relative of the lute family—the Ottoman bağlama—and a rare Tuscan-type mandola, whose octave-lower tuning lends Bach’s Third Cello Suite a dark, velvety resonance. The archlute, heard at the album’s opening and close, frames the programme with quiet elegance, while Sariel’s touch reveals Bach’s writing to be both architecturally precise and profoundly tactile.

The album unfolds as a sequence of finely balanced reflections rather than a single dramatic arc. Bach’s works—such as the Prelude from The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Musette from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena, and the Second Violin Partita with its monumental Chaconne—appear in subtly transformed light, their rhythmic pulse and harmonic gravity brought into sharp relief by the intimacy of the plucked strings. Familiar pieces from the keyboard, violin, and cello repertoire are set alongside rarer works, including those of Westhoff and Matteis, creating a listening experience that glides effortlessly between contemplation, memory, and resonance. Even in its most expansive moments, the music maintains a sense of poise, allowing space, silence, and timbre to speak with equal eloquence.

Plucked Bach III continues Alon Sariel’s collaboration with PENTATONE. Beyond the Plucked Bach trilogy, this partnership also includes Vienna Mandolin Stories (2025) and the EP Schubert’s Mandolin (2024), affirming Sariel as an exceptional artist whose work consistently reimagines the expressive possibilities of plucked instruments—and particularly of the mandolin—with rare depth and imagination.

Tracklist
01. Bach- Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005 (Arr. for Archlute by Alon Sariel)- I. Adagio
02. Bach- The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (Arr. for Tuscan Mandolin by Alon Sariel)- Prelude No. 1 in C Major, BWV 846
03. Bach- Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandola by Alon Sariel)- I. Prélude
04. Bach- Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandola by Alon Sariel)- II. Allemande
05. Bach- Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandola by Alon Sariel)- III. Courante
06. Bach- Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandola by Alon Sariel)- IV. Sarabande
07. Bach- Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandola by Alon Sariel)- V. Bourrée I & Bourrée II
08. Bach- Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandola by Alon Sariel)- VI. Gigue
09. Bach- Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1725 (Arr. for Bağlama by Alon Sariel)- Musette in D Major, BWV Anh. 126
10. Matteis- Alia Fantasia in A Minor (Arr. for Mandolin by Alon Sariel)
11. Bach- Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandolin by Alon Sariel)- I. Allemande
12. Bach- Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandolin by Alon Sariel)- II. Courante
13. Bach- Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandolin by Alon Sariel)- III. Sarabande
14. Bach- Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (Arr. for Tuscan Mandolin by Alon Sariel)- IV. Gigue
15. Westhoff- Sonata No. 3 in D Minor (Arr. for Mandolin by Alon Sariel)- III. Imitatione delle campane
16. Bach- Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (Arr. for Mandolin by Alon Sariel)- V. Chaconne
17. Bach- Cello Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 1010 (Arr. for Archlute by Alon Sariel)- IV. Sarabande