SHAKESPEARE - BACH

“Sometimes the memory comes back, bringing with it faces, names, bits of stories and sounds. From this place emerge sonnets of Shakespeare, sometimes distant from a penetrating presence. As if they were addressed to these faces or if they were the faces that told us them.

The cello, through Bach’s suites, brings back parts of memory and sculpts time.”
Sonia Wieder-Atherton

Actress Charlotte Rampling and cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton set up a poetic dialogue between Shakespeare’s sonnets and Bach’s suites.

We’re not introducing Charlotte Rampling anymore. The British actress, known for her many films, from Luchino Visconti to François Ozon, left her mark on cinema with her magnetic play and look. In the field of music, Sonia Wieder-Atherton also occupies a prominent place. The vibrant cellist – also a composer – attaches great importance to contemporary creation and the other arts. In 2013, the two artists have already combined their talents with Danses nocturnes, a show combining poetry and literature through cello suites by Benjamin Britten and texts by the poet Sylvia Plath. For their second collaboration, it is William Shakespeare who meets the universe of Johann Sebastian Bach, the sonnets of one echoing the cello suites of the other
 

From the sonnets of Shakespeare
A suite by Bach
Charlotte Rampling and Sonia Wieder-Atherton
So that the light of an encounter may shine
The rhythm of two languages
The song of their voices.

 

Sonnets of Shakespeare
Sonnets n°17/19/16/24/55/18/136/144/5/73/116/29
French translation André Markowicz and Françoise Morvan
 

Music
Bach Suite N. 1 BWV 1007 Prélude
Suite N.4 BWV 1010  Courante et Sarabande
Suite N.5 BWV 1011 Allemande, Bourrées et Sarabande
Suite N.6 BWV 1012  Prélude

Monteverdi A voce sola (arrangement Sonia Wieder-Atherton)
Hor Ch’el Ciel Et la Terra (arrangement Sonia Wieder-Atherton)

Lotti In una siepe ombrosa extrait

Wieder-Atherton Chant de là-bas