Photo of Shunske Sato by Elvira Demerdzhy

During this first week of Advent, I often talk about Nuria Rial’s rendition of the soprano aria from Cantata 36 with the J.S. Bach Foundation. However, this year let’s put the spotlight on the violin part of that aria, and watch the incomparable Shunske Sato work his magic in this movement from Cantata 36 Schwingt freudig euch empor on All of Bach, with soprano Zsuzsi Tóth. Never did I enjoy a “da capo” this much. To read more about this cantata, the third one Bach wrote (or adapted) for the first Sunday of Advent, read my blog post from 2017 here.

That I had to think about Sato’s playing this week is no coincidence. Today I witnessed his amazing musicianship, sense of timing, and sense of humor in a terrific concert with equally talented pianist Shuann Chai here in Amsterdam. They played two Beethoven violin sonatas and it was such a treat that I can’t wait for their CD to come out in 2024 with all ten of the sonatas. Another reason I’m excited about their recording project is that Shuann will be playing on two original fortepianos from 1800 and 1820, respectively. Please read more about their endeavor here and please consider donating. They are currently at 64% of their funding so they can use all the help they can get.

If you are on Instagram, please follow my account at @weeklycantata (or click on the instagram icon here below). Please consider subscribing to this blog (type your email in the box below and then click “subscribe”), so you will receive an email each time I publish a story.

Wieneke Gorter, December 7, 2023.