Born in Recife, Brazil in 1957 into a family of musicians, Antonio Meneses began his cello studies at the age of ten. At the age of 16, he met the famous Italian cellist Antonio Janigro and was asked to join Janigro's classes in Dusseldorf and later in Stuttgart. In 1977, Antonio won the first Prize at the International Competition in Munich and in 1982, he was awarded first Prize and gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Regularly appearing in the music capitals of Europe, the Americas and Asia, Antonio Meneses has performed with most of the world's leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Concertgebouw, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C.), in Buenos Aires, in Warsaw, in Brazil, and with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Among the conductors with whom he has collaborated are Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Muti, Mariss Jansons, Claudio Abbado, Andre Previn, Andrew Davis, Semyon Bychkov, Herbert Blomstedt, Gerd Albrecht, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Sanderling, Neeme Jarvi, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Vladimir Spivakov, and Riccardo Chailly.

Antonio is also a frequent guest at many important music festivals, including Puerto Rico (Festival Pablo Casals), Salzburg, Lucerne, the Vienna Festwochen, the Berlin Festwochen, the Prague Spring Festival, New York (Mostly Mozart Festival), Seattle, la Grange de Meslay, the Festival de Colmar, and the Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival.

A devoted chamber music performer, Antonio Meneses has collaborated with the Emerson Quartet and the Vermeer Quartet on tour as well as with pianists such as Nelson Freire, Cristina Ortiz, and Gerard Wyss. Antonio has been a member of the Beaux Arts Trio since October 1998.

As a recording artist, Antonio Meneses made two recordings for Deutsche Grammophon with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra: Brahms' Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Anne Sophie Mutter and Richard Strauss' "Don Quixote". Antonio has also recorded the D'Albert Concerto, works by David Popper - both with the Basel Symphony Orchestra - and Cello Concertos by Carl Philip Emanuel Bach with the Munich Chamber Orchestra for Pan Classics. In addition he recorded the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio with Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg and Cecile Licad for EMI/Angel, and Concertos and the Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos for Auvidis France. His most recent recordings, the complete works for Cello and Piano by Villa-Lobos with Cristina Ortiz and encore pieces with Gerald Wyss, were released in 2002.

In addition to a busy concert schedule, Antonio Meneses gives master classes in Europe, the Americas, and in Japan.

J.S. BACH: 6 SUITES FOR SOLO CELLO

While, as we know, music for unaccompanied violin was by no means uncommon in the first decades of the eighteenth century, pieces for unaccompanied cello were of greater novelty. There was, admittedly, a small legacy of music for unaccompanied bass viol from seventeenth century England but, as far as we know, only one composer before Bach, the Bolognese composer Domenico Gabrielli (1651-1690), produced any music of substance for unaccompanied cello. Gabrielli's sonatas, with their intricate passagework and their multiple stopping, may be seen as ancestors of Bach's own six pioneering suites.

It is probable that Bach wrote his six Cello Suites during his time at Cšthen. Two accomplished cellists, Christian Ferdinand Abel, who was also a celebrated viola da gamba player, and Christian Bernhard Linigke were members of the court "Kammermusici" and it is possible that Bach wrote the Suites for one or other of them. Bach's autograph manuscript has not survived but the music is preserved in a fair copy prepared at Leipzig by his second wife, Anna Magdalena. It is uncertain, though, whether the six Suites were conceived as a set for, though they have plenty of features in common, there are also disparities. The first three Suites are easier to play than the remaining three which, generally speaking, become progressively harder. In the Fifth Suite, furthermore, "scordatura" tuning is required, while for the Sixth Bach calls for an instrument with five strings as opposed to the standard four-stringed cello. In this recording, though, a modern four-stringed instrument is played.

Each of the Suites begins with a Prelude which is followed by three stylised dance movements of the classical suite sequence: Allemande, Courante and Sarabande. For the fifth movement Bach drew upon three types of dance - Menuet, Bourree and Gavotte - from a wealth of 'galanteries' whose diverse character enriched the Baroque suite throughout the late 17th and early-to-mid 18th centuries. For the concluding dance in all six of the Cello Suites Bach, once more, resumes the classical suite sequence with a Gigue.

Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007 The Suite No. 1 is, perhaps, the most immediately appealing of the six. Its Prelude is built on a restless almost unbroken sequence of semiquavers leading to a climax as the music ascends chromatically for an octave and a half. The Allemande is a more reflective movement in two sections with only sparingly applied double stopping. The flowing melodic line with its natural articulation gives the music a notably eloquent air. The Courante, by contrast, is a brisker movement in triple time. The mood of the Sarabande is more in keeping with that of the Allemande though rhythmically quite different with its emphatic accentuation at the beginning of each bar. Two Menuets follow with a return to the first after the conclusion of the second. Bach adopts this "alternativement" pattern for each group of Menuets, Bourrees and Gavottes which occur in the Suites. A simple but animated Gigue brings the First Suite to a conclusion.

Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 The Prelude of the Suite No. 2 is quite different in character from that which opens the First Suite. Here a gentle melancholy prevails which is emphasised by the broad, pathetic gestures of the melodic line. The Allemande seems almost distracted in its mood of reflection and the Courante adds a busy agitation to an already sombre sound picture. The moments of greatest poignancy are, perhaps, to be found in the opening measures of the powerful Sarabande and in its prevailing low-lying, dark utterances. The Menuets are amongst the most serious that Bach wrote but, even so, lose nothing of their inherent dance character. The Gigue begins straightforwardly but a powerful intensity builds up in passages of double-stopping towards the close of the second half.

Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009 The opening measures of the Prelude, an expansive descent through two octaves to the open string of the low C, are something of a statement of intent. This is a declamatory gesture which, from now onwards grows in intensity towards a climax against a pedal note on G. We have already encountered something similar in the Prelude of the Suite in G major but in the C major Prelude the effect is longer drawn out. Towards the end of the movement vigorous, four-part chord interjections prepare us for the conclusion. The Allemande, like the Prelude, is expansive in its opening statement. Whilst at the outset it is unmistakably a dance movement, the elaborate figurations and rhythmic diversity which follow tend to conceal the fact. The Courante consists of an almost unbroken sequence of quavers in which contrast is achieved by constantly alternating passages of arpeggios and scale-wise progressions. The chordal Sarabande is a contemplative movement which Bach, though writing in a conventional dance form both expands and, at the same time, imbues with a deeper, expressive content than either his predecessors or contemporaries had done. The two Bourrees which follow are, by contrast, in a straightforward dance idiom. Bach, however, enriches these delightful pieces of "galanterie" with an expressive melodic line and by means of a tonal contrast between the two movements. The Gigue is a vigorous one, some of whose double-stopping gives the piece an exotic flavour.

Suite No 4 in E flat major, BWV 1010 The Prelude to this suite is in two parts, in each of which Bach develops a single melodic idea. The first part is dominated by arpeggio figures without chords and comes to rest on a low C sharp; then the second, which contains a few chords, is taken up. Here, after a cadenza-like passage the quaver arpeggio figures are contrasted with more animated semiquaver runs. A notable feature of this movement lies in Bach's use of bold harmonic territory sometimes far removed from the tonic key of E flat.

The character of the Allemande is altogether more straightforward than that of the preceding movement. It possesses a simple eloquence built upon a flowing semiquaver melodic line punctuated by brief quaver interjections. The Courante is bolder and contains a rich diversity of rhythm achieved by frequently changing patterns of quavers, semiquavers and triplets. The Sarabande is a noble piece whose melody is given a resonant accompaniment by the use of double and triple stopping. The two following Bourrees are strikingly contrasted. Both are in the major key, but, whereas the first and longer of the two is dominated by little four-note semiquver runs which lead to the main accent of the dance, the second is characterised by chordal writing and a more courtly grace. The Gigue is a particularly animated one with almost unceasing triplet quavers but with none of the tonal exploration which plays such an important part in the opening movement.

Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011 Bach wrote two versions of this suite, the earlier one being in all probability that for solo cello. The other version, in Bach's own hand, is for solo lute and is in the key of G minor (BWV 995); it dates from the Leipzig period and, more specifically, from the late 1720s or early 1730s. The form of the expressive opening Prelude is a departure from the free rhapsodic gestures found in those of the remaining Suites. This one consists of a slow introduction followed by a faster section in fugal style with the second voice implied by brief chordal episodes. The idea, with its second section in 3/8 time, is not unlike that of a French overture but here the dimensions are altogether on a grander scale. The Allemande continues the grandeur and pathos of the Prelude with almost tortured exclamations emerging from the prevailing dotted rhythm. The declamatory utterances of this movement are notably powerful and are only marginally less in evidence in the Courante. There, however the dance element is uppermost with its strong 3/2 rhythm running through it. The Sarabande, entirely devoid of chordal writing, has a noble simplicity and a deep air of pathos. In its tender unassuming way we might almost regard it as the focal point of the entire suite. The two Gavottes which follow are lively and in strong contrast with each other. The first with its forceful upbeat and double stopping is closer in spirit to the dance than the second, altogether gentler Gavotte, with its fast-flowing groups of triplets. An air of melancholy which pervades this suite, but is eased in the Gavottes, returns in the declamatory Gigue which concludes this powerful work.

Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012 The precise nature of the instrument for which Bach wrote his D major Suite has been the subject of much speculation. What is certain is that it possessed an extra string tuned a fifth higher than the top A string of a standard cello. Bach's biographer Philipp Spitta, claims that the music was written for a viola pomposa, an instrument supposedly invented by Bach. It is equally possible, however, that Bach wrote this Suite for a small five-stringed cello Ð a violoncello piccolo, or a standard-sized cello with five strings: both were known in Bach's time. Whilst the extra string certainly helps the player to explore the highest register, the suite can be played on a standard four-stringed instrument as it is in this recording.

The extraordinary virtuosity of Bach's writing becomes at once apparent in the Prelude which is in the 12/8 measure of a gigue. At the outset, alternating bars of forte and piano, precisely indicated in the score, provide a striking contrast of sound. Quavers in triplets dominate the first part of the movement but, after fully exploiting the uppermost reaches of the tessitura, they yield to semiquaver passages which emphasise the fantasy element present in the piece. A return to the triplet motif brings this fine movement to a close. The broad phrases, elaborate flourishes and wide ranging compass of the Allemande give it something of an improvisatory quality, but it is also a movement of great natural poise. The Courante is a brisk one requiring virtuosity from the player. Its character is marked out in the strong arpeggios of the opening bars which jostle throughout the movement with fast-flowing semiquaver passages. The Sarabande possesses a noble melody accompanied by frequent chords and multiple stoppings. Descending chords of a sixth which occur in the second half of the movement are, perhaps, especially affecting. Both of the Gavottes which follow feel particularly closely allied with dancing. Bach captures a highly individual charm and lightness in each of these pieces of galanterie. The Gigue, with its varied passage-work, is a tour-de-force of invention, construction and technical virtuosity. It provides a satisfying conclusion to the set. Nicholas Anderson