Cellist Marko Ylönen has recorded a beautiful double album containing Bach’s six suites for solo cello. On the album, Ylönen wants to emphasize the way in which the different series work together in a dialogue. That is why he does not play them in their numerical order but creates an experience that takes the listener from the world of passion in the fifth series to the joyful tones of the last sixth series. The clear musical structure and the affect of the musical characters and gestures combine in Ylönen’s performance. His interpretation of the Bach suites tells the listener something invaluable, touching and timeless. © Alba Records
Marko Ylönen (born 1966) has occupied numerous roles in the course of his career: as soloist and principal cellist, in quartets, trios and duos, as Artistic Director of several festivals and as a teacher. He has also reaped success in many Finnish and international competitions and recorded a large volume of staple and contemporary cello literature. His concert tours have taken him across Europe, to the USA, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and he has recorded on the Ondine, Finlandia, BIS, Alba and other labels. A regular soloist with most of the Finnish orchestras, Marko Ylönen has also appeared with the Camerata Salzburg, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestras of Adelaide, Melbourne and Stavanger, and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. Among the conductors he has worked with are Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Juha Kangas, John Storgårds, Hannu Lintu, Susanna Mälkki, Ben Wallfisch, Klaus Mäkelä, Sakari Oramo, Moshe Atzmon, Alexander Vedernikov and Olli Mustonen. He has given recitals at such prestigious venues as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York and the Kleine Zaal of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. In chamber repertoire he has performed with many of the world’s greatest musicians at festivals in Finland and elsewhere. He has been Professor of chamber music at the Sibelius Academy since 2009. His own teachers were Csaba Szilvay, Heikki Rautasalo and Heinrich Schiff, and he plays a Bartolomeo Cristofori cello from the 1720s.