Stockbridge — Cellist Dane Johansen will perform works by Benjamin Britten, J.S. Bach, and Gaspar Cassadó at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Saturday, June 28, in a concert presented by the Berkshire Bach Society. The concert marks the final performance of the Society’s 35th season.
Johansen is the man who walked nearly 600 miles along the Camino de Santiago with a cello on his back, performing the Bach Cello Suites in churches along the way. The Camino de Santiago, or “The Way of Saint James,” is the historic pilgrimage route leading to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, where tradition holds that the remains of the apostle James are buried.
The route spans a distance roughly equivalent to walking from Los Angeles, Calif., to Tucson, Ariz.
Tristan Cook’s documentary about Johansen’s pilgrimage, “Strangers on the Earth,” opened the Berkshire Bach Society’s Portals season in September 2024.
A former cellist with the Escher String Quartet and a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, Johansen joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 2016, the same year he made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra performing William Walton’s “Cello Concerto.” He made his Lincoln Center debut performing Elliott Carter’s “Cello Concerto” in celebration of the composer’s centennial and appeared at Carnegie Hall after winning the Juilliard School’s Leo Ruiz Memorial Award.
A native of Fairbanks, Alaska, Johansen studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, and the Juilliard School, where he earned his artist diploma. He also studied privately with the legendary Bernard Greenhouse.
Saturday’s program is as follows:
- J.S. Bach — Suite for Solo Cello No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012
- Benjamin Britten — Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72
- Gaspar Cassadó — Suite for Solo Cello
Johansen has for many years specialized in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello. The sixth and last suite, BWV 1012, written during Bach’s time in Köthen, Germany, is celebrated for its technical brilliance and emotional depth.
Benjamin Britten composed his Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72, in 1964 for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered the work and inspired Britten to push the cello beyond its known limits. Listeners are drawn to its emotional intensity and its balance of modern and traditional elements. For performers, the suite offers both a formidable technical challenge and a vehicle for dramatic expression.
The “Suite for Solo Cello,” composed in 1926 by the Spanish cellist Gaspar CassadĂł i Moreu, has become a favorite among contemporary cellists because it is dramatic, technically difficult, and accessible to all audiences. Influenced by Spanish folk rhythms, melodies, and dance forms, as well as the language of early 20th-century modernism, the work is vibrant, colorful, and unmistakably Spanish.
Hear cellist Dane Johansen perform Benjamin Britten’s Cello Suite No. 1, Op. 72, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 29 Main Street, Stockbridge, on Saturday, June 28 at 5 p.m. Tickets are available here.
