Suite No. 6 in D major for solo cello BWV 1012

Bach composed the six suites for unaccompanied cello around 1720, during his tenure as Kapellmeister at the court of Cöthen. The Sixth Suite was written for a five-stringed instrument — the identity of which remains a subject of scholarly debate — giving the writing an unusually high range and brilliant character that pushes the modern cello to its limits. The suite follows the standard Baroque dance sequence — Prélude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, two Gavottes, and Gigue — on a scale grander than any of its companions. The key of D major, frequently associated in Bach’s work with festivity and ceremonial occasions, runs through the entire suite with consistent brightness. The manuscripts survive only in copies made by Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena, and several other copyists; no autograph score is known to exist.

Sonata for Viola da Gamba in G major BWV 1027

Bach composed three sonatas for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord, almost certainly during the Cöthen period (1717–1723). BWV 1027 is a reworking of an earlier trio sonata for two flutes and continuo (BWV 1039), transposed and recast for the two instruments in equal dialogue. The work is in four movements — Adagio, Allegro ma non tanto, Andante, Allegro moderato — structured in the slow-fast-slow-fast pattern of the Italian church sonata. On today’s program, the viola da gamba part is performed on cello, a common and well-established practice.

Prelude and Fugue in A minor 

Between 1842 and 1850, Franz Liszt transcribed six of Bach’s organ preludes and fugues for solo piano. The original A minor work is believed to date from Bach’s early years in Weimar (c. 1708–1717), a period of intense engagement with the organ repertoire of Buxtehude, Pachelbel, and the Italian school. Liszt’s transcription redistributes the three-voice organ texture across the keyboard, assigning the pedal lines to the bass register of the piano and expanding the dynamic range available to the performer. The fugue subject — brief, angular, and harmonically charged — is developed across an extended movement that demonstrates Bach’s mastery of contrapuntal craft at its most rigorous.

Cellist James Jaffe sees every performance as an opportunity to create authentic connections between art, artists, and audience members. He has performed as a soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland, and St. John’s Chamber Orchestra. Chamber music appearances have taken him to Beijing’s Central Conservatory, the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy, concert tours of Switzerland and France, and the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar in Manhattan (93-year-old Mr. Mann sat back and cheerfully asked his quartet, “What else can you teach me?”). His concerts have been broadcast on Cleveland’s WCLV 104.9, Virginia’s WVTF 89.1, San Francisco’s KDFC 90.3, and streamed live from the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. On the other hand, James has performed Hockey Night in Canada at a dive bar in Alberta, appeared in a music video for the metal band Machine Head wearing a full clown outfit, and attempted to make eye contact with headlamp-wearing quartet friends (it hurts) during a late-night performance of Beethoven’s Quartet op. 59 no. 2 at Union Lake in the Trinity Alps, which can only be accessed by a 5-mile foot or horse trail.

A visionary performer and collaborator, James co-founded Wave Chamber Collective, which brings chamber musicians into dynamic new relationships with poets, artists, and scientists, and became a prescribed fire practitioner through his work with the Fire and Music Project, a new initiative creating performances to inspire a shift in Californians’ relationship with fire. James is a longstanding member of the Groupmuse house concert cooperative, having performed at over 160 Groupmuses to date, including a sold-out performance of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden at the Bay Area’s first Massivemuse. He also works as a core member and section leader of One Found Sound, San Francisco’s unaccompanied chamber orchestra. He is a founding member of the Sierra Quartet and serves as artistic director of Festival Rolland, a summer chamber music festival in Burgundy, France. While classically trained, he has been fortunate to collaborate across genres with Journey, Deltron 3030, Vanessa Williams, Brad Mehldau, and Ensemble Mik Nawooj.

The son of a musicologist and an orchestral conductor, James began his lifelong journey with music by listening to ensembles conducted by his father, and absorbing his mother’s joy at the power of music and nature. James began piano lessons at the age of five and cello lessons at the age of nine, and before graduating high school, he had won local concerto competitions at the Sacramento Youth Symphony, the Diablo Symphony Orchestra, and the Peninsula Symphony.

James studied the cello with Louise Saunders in Stockton, Milly Rosner in Berkeley, and Richard Aaron at the University of Michigan. He completed advanced performance degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Stephen Geber and the San Francisco Conservatory with Jennifer Culp. He spent summers in training at the Aspen Music Festival, Banff Centre in Canada, Astona Academy in Switzerland, and Music@Menlo (one of the directors of both Music@Menlo and Chamber Music at Lincoln Center told him he’d never work in classical music again after he and his teenage dormmates took part in a short-sighted prank, which could explain why he prefers the term “art music”). His chamber music mentors include members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Takács, Tokyo, Vermeer, Emerson, Brentano, Borromeo, St. Lawrence, and Kronos quartets.

Gratitude for his education has made James passionate about sharing music with the next generation. James has coached chamber music at the Crowden School in Berkeley, served as director of high school chamber ensembles at Baldwin Wallace University, and mentored students through the Detroit Symphony’s Civic Youth Ensembles program. He has also appeared as guest faculty at the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra and the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute.

Award-winning pianist Elektra Schmidt performs as a solo artist and in chamber groups in the United States as well as France, Greece, and the United Kingdom. She has had the good fortune to learn alongside such visionaries as Marios Papadopoulos, Neil Immelman, Theodor Paraskeveku, the Ganev duo, and others.

After graduating summa cum laude from the National Conservatory of her native Greece in the class of her cherished mentor Stavroula Papadiamanti, Elektra pursued her post-graduate studies in Paris at the Schola Cantorum and the Conservatoire Raoul Pugno under the guidance of distinguished pianist Lilia Boyadjieva.
She received her master’s degree with First Prize and Distinction (Medaille d’Or avec les felicitations du jury).

Elektra is the founder of Artist Migration, an organization dedicated to the integration and mobility of international artists.
She has collaborated with international festivals throughout the world, including the San Francisco International Arts Festival, Art in Nature Festival, and Flower Piano Festival.
Elektra is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.