DUO VERSHININA-LEE - JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: CANTATA (RE)MIXED FOR FOUR HANDS

Athene is proud to present Cantata (re)mixed for four hands, an exciting album of J.S. Bach's Cantatas arranged/re-composed by Chiahu Lee and Gyorgy Kurtag, and performed by piano Duo Vershinina-Lee (Chiahu Lee and Yulia Vershinina-Mukhopadhyay). This follows their acclaimed Diversions release in 2024 (re)inventions a deux pianos (DDV 24172), a complete recomposition for two pianos of J.S. Bach's 15 two-part inventions, praised by BBC Music Magazine as 'an invigorating and beguiling spring clean for the ears.' Yulia Vershinina first encountered Kurtag's transcription of the Sonatina from J.S. Bach's Cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit ten years ago, and drawn to it's intimacy, the Duo have longed to record it. It's included on the album alongside six new four-hand reimaginings of J.S. Bach cantata sections composed by Chiahu Lee, and in doing so the duo have formed an imagined cantata of their own, bringing Bach's vocal world into the shared space of one piano, embodying the joy, spontaneity, and trust of their unique partnership. The album opens with the exhilarating and joyful arrangement of Sinfonia 'Wir danken dir, Gott, wir danken dir' (BWV 29), followed by the Chorale 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme' (BWV 140), both bringing to mind the layered textures of electronic music. The Chorale Prelude 'Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein' (BWV 734) successfully manages the tricky task of translating the various different instrumental colours into one shared keyboard. Chorale Prelude 'Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ' (BWV 639) was inspired in part by Kurtag's transcription style: intimate, spare, and intensely concentrated, and is followed by his long-awaited arrangement of the Sonatina 'Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit' (BWV 106). Chia- Chia has waited since childhood to play Aria 'Alles, was von Gott geboren' (BWV 80), and to bring this beloved vocal moment into the shared space of four hands. The final Chorale 'Alle Menschen mussen sterben' (BWV 262) was inspired by string instruments - Lee found ways to allow the piano to replicate their resonance and to suggest bowed sound. Chiahu-Lu Lee says 'Bach himself was a master of transcription: he arranged music by other composers and reworked his own. Seen in that light, the desire to carry Bach's vocal worlds into the hands of pianists felt less like an intrusion and more of a continuation - a way of entering a tradition rather than stepping outside of it.' Pianists Yulia Vershinina-Mukhopadhyay and Chiahu 'Chia-Chia' Lee met at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where a lasting friendship grew into an enduring musical partnership. United by a shared curiosity for reinvention and lesser-known repertoire, the duo explores music across centuries through performance, arrangement, and creative reimagining, with projects ranging from Baroque reinventions to works by contemporary women composers.

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