What the deuce may Sergey Malov have in mind with “13 stings” ? Quite simple: it’s the sum of individual strings on the three instruments he plays for this album – since one of them has not the usual four, but five strings. That instrument is none but the violoncello da spalla, to wit a shoulder cello which is, as the name implies, held against the shoulder, like a violin or a viola. Malov uses it for Bach’s Second Suite, usually played on a cello, but the soloist considers that since Bach’s Sixth suite – note recorded here – is to be played on that violoncello da spalla, why not try it for other suites. The sonority seems more streamlined, less broad, more virtuoso and “easy” than the cello. For the Second violon partita, Malov remains true to the originally intended instrument, the violin. Finally, he plays a viola for Ligeti’s Sonata for solo viola, composed some 250 years later than the Kantor’s two masterpieces. It should be noted that in the first movement (deliberately intended to be “out of tune” by the composer, who borrows micro-intervals from Romanian folkmusic), Malov adds two low drone notes, which he overdubs using his own cello da spalla, these notes being the fundamental notes for several groups of the melodic line that sproing from the natural harmonics of said drones. No, Ligeti did not write or even suggest the idea, but Malov remains very, very discreet, and these two drones sound more like some faraway primeval rumbling, absolutely natural with the viola lines. A rather fascinating idea ! Sergey Malov, a worldwide star on the current music scene, won major competitions on two instruments: the violin (Heifetz 2008, Mozart 2010, Michael Hill 2011) and the viola (Tokyo 2010). His interest in historically informed performance practices led him to study the Baroque violin and more recently the violoncello da spalla. Today he successfully combines all these instruments in recitals, concerts, and recordings.© SM/Qobuz