Please note: these are the Quintasia cello parts, only available via download. For the printed studay score, see button below.

Gavotte en Rondeau from Violin Partita No.3
( BWV 1006 )

Paper, daylight and candles were often in short supply during
Bach’s very busy lifetime but simply to view the autograph score
in his hand of the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin is to be
bound into a spell by the beauty, skill and extempore furiosity
of the script. The cycle has been described as a miracle of implied
harmony and rich harmonic textures, “its freshness and maturity,
its depth, its beauty, its response to all moods” informing a work
of humanity and genius unparalleled in all the literature for solo
violin.
The present arrangement of the Gavotte en Rondeau from
Partita No. 3 (BWV1006) is based on Rachmaninoff’s intricate
harmonisation for piano.

Ruht Wohl from the St. John Passion
( BWV 245 )

In the final Chorus from the St. John Passion, Bach imbues
the popular dance-forms of the Sarabande and Minuet with a
spiritual theme of atonement and reconciliation. The three
ritornelli stand like pillars in a palindromic structure whose
unbroken melodic line and flowing counterpoint represent a
‘ timeless continuance ’. The original scoring is light and
transparent, and transfers appropriately to a choir of cellos
without the loss of any counterpoint.

Prelude Op. 25 No 3 b y Rachmaninoff

Throughout his career as a composer and virtuoso pianist,
this Prelude was one of Rachmaninoff’s favourite pieces and he
dedicated it to his teacher Alexander Siloti.
A powerful structure is built up from a small rhythmic motif,
reminiscent of Tchaikovsky’s representations of fate or
Shostakovich’s of looming state power. This is contrasted with
a lyrical middle section and a final phrase marked leggiero
in which the music flies off into the air like a bird.