Sigiswald Kuijken is one of the most important pioneers of the early music scene and celebrates his 80th birthday on 16 February 2024. Throughout his life as a musician, he has looked far beyond “classical violin playing”. Even as a student, he explored baroque playing techniques on the violin and developed a milestone in historical violin playing without a support or chin rest, with the instrument resting freely on his shoulder. He learnt to play the viola da gamba at a young age as a self-taught musician. In 2004, he first advocated the revival of the violoncello da spalla – and played the shoulder cello, which was the actual basso continuo instrument in the Baroque period and was completely forgotten in the course of history. As a university teacher, Sigiswald Kuijken has influenced generations of musicians and recorded countless discs himself. To mark his anniversary, he presents himself and his audience with a very personal recording and introduces “his three instruments” – the violin, the viola da gamba and the violoncello da spalla – with selected unaccompanied solo works. The compositions are by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Thomas Baltzar, Diego Ortiz, Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Sebastian Bach. As a “personal treat”, Kuijken also plays the Allemande from Bach’s 2nd Cello Suite in ornamented form on the clavichord, just as Johann Sebastian himself probably presented his solo suites at home in his day.
