Eleonor Bindman spoke with Barry Lenson about her new J.S. Bach Cello Suite transcriptions and recordings on the Classical Archives blog:

Prepare to be surprised when you listen to the new 2-CD release of Eleonor Bindman playing her piano arrangements of Bach’s Cello Suites. Ms. Bindman’s arrangements faithfully include the notes you will find in the original Bach, but have become works that are new, unique, and completely satisfying on their own terms.

That is just one of the discoveries to be made in this new recording, which follows an earlier, excellent 2-CD recording, The Brandenburg Duets of four-hand transcriptions of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos that Ms. Bindman performed with fellow pianist Jenny Lin.

In nearly every way, the Cello Suite transcriptions feel very different from the Brandenburgs. How did that happen, and what was the thinking behind this new release? We spoke with Ms. Bindman, and here is what she had to say.

Classical Archives: What motivated you to transcribe and record these pieces?

All my transcriptions are motivated by the desire to play my favorite music on the piano. My first major piano transcription – Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain – was made because I just loved the orchestral piece and wanted to have more Mussorgsky to perform.  Max Reger’s piano-4-hands version of the Brandenburgs has been on my music shelf for decades but proved too unwieldy when I tried to play them with my piano duet partner.  So I made a new, playable one, thinking that a good arrangement would really enrich the piano-4-hands repertoire.  The Cello Suites by nature are suitable for amateur pianists so this new set is also intended to provide more playable Bach for them.

See the interview on the ClassicalArchives.com blog!