Album Notes

OXINGALE RECORDS' debut release has been honored with a nomination from the AFIM for the INDIE AWARD for BEST SOLO CLASSICAL RECORDING OF 2001. On November 17, 2001 the album was the winner of a Just Plain Folks Award for BEST SOLO CLASSICAL RECORDING of 2001.

Featured in Billboard, and a TOP PICK in U. S. News and World Report, MATT HAIMOVITZ's J. S. Bach: 6 Suites for Cello Solo, complete on three compact discs, is the latest recording from this internationally acclaimed artist. The set is accompanied by a 24-page booklet featuring musical commentary on each suite and 15 black and white photographs.

Matt Haimovitz' 6 Suites for Cello Solo by J. S. Bach was recorded in the Plainfield Congregational Church in Plainfield, Mass. In his program note Haimovitz writes: "the 250th anniversary of Bach's death on July 28th, 2000 inspired the schedule of the recording sessions - July 10 to 13 and August 6 to 7 of that year. I found the sanctuary of Plainfield's historic hilltown church to be an ideal ambiance that both nurtured the 'cello's natural tone and allowed space for the sound to be sculpted." The recording was produced by Luna Pearl Woolf, who, as a composer herself, brought her insight into the compositional process to the production. Engineering was provided by Mark Thayer, whose 20 years of experience recording classical, jazz and acoustic folk music brings a warmth and intimacy to the final sound. The album was mastered by David Glasser, who has mastered 45 Grammy-nominated records and received a Grammy for mastering and restoration of the critically acclaimed "Anthology of American Folk Music."

In 2000, Mr. Haimovitz participated in celebrating the 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach's death with a live-television broadcast of the solo Bach cello suites at the Schwetzingen Castle in Germany. Subsequently, Haimovitz has been taking Bach's beloved cello suites out of the concert hall, performing them in intimate venues and music clubs across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. The Bach Listening-Room Tour has sold-out nearly every performance, has been profiled on National Public Radio's 'Performance Today' and PRI's 'The World,' as well as in the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times, the Boston Globe, the Seattle Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Among the rave reviews, LA Times critic Mark Swed writes, "In these experiments, Haimovitz has, indeed, recaptured the freshness in music making. There is nothing like the intimacy of hearing great music in a close, casual environment, and Monday night the cellist seemed to absorb as much energy from the crowd as we did from him." Philadelphia Enquirer critic David Patrick Stearns remarks, "If playing Bach in the Old City folk club the Tin Angel was an experiment, cellist Matt Haimovitz succeeded Monday in ways that say as much about the needs of the music-loving public as his extraordinary talent."

For Listening-Room Tour dates please visit Matt Haimovitz's website, www.oxingale.com