Five dancers have got this cellist's Bach

Hamburg, Germany

CELLIST Jean-Guihen Queyras has collaborated with period instrument ensembles, made expeditions into the craggy corners of the avant garde and produced burnished readings of chamber music classics. But he is probably best known for his performances of Bach's six suites for solo cello, a summit of the repertoire which he continues to scale from different vantage points.

Queyras, 50, has experimented on the work with historical instruments and different combinations of strings and bow. He commissioned six contemporary composers to write introductions to the suites. In 2009, he performed four of them in a room specially designed for the music by architect Zaha Hadid. And he is now playing the complete set as the accompaniment to a new dance work by the acclaimed choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.