Johann Sebastia Bach:
from Sonata in C major for Violin No. 3, BWV 1005
Johann Sebastian Bach:
from Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846, from ""The Well-Tempered Clavier I"":
Prelude (mandolin)
Johann Sebastian Bach:
from Six Suites for Solo Cello, BWV 1007-1012
Isaac Albéniz:
from ""Suite Espanola"" in G minor for Guitar, Op. 47 No. 1
Nicola Matteis (son):
from 2 Fantasias for Solo Violin
Johann Sebastian Bach:
Partita for Solo Violin No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 (mandolin)
Johann Paul von Westhoff:
from Sonata for Violin and Basso Continuo in D minor:

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 baglama 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.

Released physically as a standard CD and digitally on all platforms.