The Bach Cello Suites - Further Versions ?

[gamba]

I have a £30 Amazon voucher, am just about able to cope with my cello again & would like to increase my selection of how they should sound. I already have three fine examples;

1. Pierre Fournier
2. Janos Starker
3. Steven Isserlis

Am looking for a ' true ' baroque sound, Anner Bylsma perhaps ?

Will be glad to share your thoughts on this - there is no easy answer to decisions on the interpretation of music of this stature. In fact my Janos Starker is his 5th. recording !

[Thropplenoggin]

Great thread, Gamba. I'll be interested to hear what the HIP enthusiasts have to say about this, too, as I've never found one that has satisfied me as much as Fournier, which gets just about everything right (that is, the way I think this or that bit should sound). I've also fallen under the spell of Tortelier's version recently.

Jean-Guihen Queyras is apparently 'period-influenced' in his performance style but I'm not sure about the cello/string set-up he uses. It has many fans (I once counted myself among them) but the reverb bloom of the recording is a bit wearing after a while, and I didn't feel he hits the spot in all the key moments for me.

Queyras's recording is available on YouTube here, so you can try before you buy.

[amateur51]

I have a £30 Amazon voucher, am just about able to cope with my cello again & would like to increase my selection of how they should sound. I already have three fine examples;

1. Pierre Fournier
2. Janos Starker
3. Steven Isserlis

Am looking for a ' true ' baroque sound, Anner Bylsma perhaps ?

Will be glad to share your thoughts on this - there is no easy answer to decisions on the interpretation of music of this stature. In fact my Janos Starker is his 5th. recording !

You've got some cello gold there already gamba but I do understand the urge to explore further afield, especially when you have a voucher.

I'd be tempted to use Spotify or Quobuz so that you can listen to some recordings first. Presto is good too because although they give you only a minute, they begin each movement from the start.

I'm growing to like Pieter Wispelwey's third and most baroque-sounding set

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Evil%2BPenguin/EPRC012#listen

Richard Tunnicliffe

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Linn/CKD396#listen

Left-field suggestion: Maxim Rysanov (viola) transcriptions by Simon Rowland-Jones

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/BIS/BISSACD1783#listen

Jean-Guihen Queyras

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Harmonia%2BMundi/HMC901970%252F71#listen

Anne Gastinel

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Naive/V5121#listen

I'm sure there'll be plenty of other suggestions along soon from our esteemed fellow-boarders :biggtin:

[salymap]

I only have Paul Tortelier butam happy with him, although not Baroque I'm afraid.

[Richard Tarleton]

Am looking for a ' true ' baroque sound, Anner Bylsma perhaps ?

Gamba - possibly not Bylsma? - he too has recorded them more than once, I believe, but I find him very wayward with the rhythm to the point of being annoying. For a HIPP version, try Jaap ter Linden on baroque cello, with the 6th performed on a 5-stringed Amati instrument. Recommended by Andrew Manze in a survey a while back, and I love it.

Starker was the first version I ever heard - a friend played me his 6th (no idea which recording, it was on LP, circa 1970) and it took my breath away, I was an instant convert. I now have the Mercury Living Presence CDs recorded in 1963 and 1965 - may well be the version I heard originally. That and the Tortelier (1961) make up my 3 versions!

PS I also like what I've heard of Wispelwey's Bach, but no idea which version it was!,

[Julien Sorel]

The most recent Peter Wispelwey recording (Evil Penguin) is very striking http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/E...enguin/EPRC012 (though Richard Tarleton's objections to Bylsma's rhythmic freedom would apply to Wispelwey also. I find Bylsma engaging rather than annoying, especially the second recording played on the "Servais" Stradivarius from the Smithsonian Institute's collection).

Ophélie Gaillard's second recording (Aparté) ('cello 1737 by Matteo Goffriller) is lovely: elegant and danceful http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/A...5C3%25A9/AP017

For really HIPP - the suggestion is the suites were written for violoncello da spalla not a 'cello or violoncello piccolo in Suite 6 and the instrument's re-constructor Dmitry Badiarov has made a fine recording (he sounds more at ease on the instrument than Sigiswald Kuijken, great Bach interpreter though the latter is). http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/R...%25A9e/RAM1003

Hopkinson Smith has recorded them all transcribed for lute (Naïve).

Just seen about your Amazon voucher, gamba

Wispelwey http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pieter-Wispe...3890648&sr=1-1

Gaillard http://www.amazon.co.uk/J-S-Bach-Sui...3890668&sr=1-1

Badiarov http://www.amazon.co.uk/Js-Bach-Suit...3890697&sr=1-1

Bylsma http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bach-Solo-Ce...3890721&sr=1-1

[gamba]

Salymap,

A good choice salymap. - a nicely rounded affectionate interpretation.

[Tony Halstead]

My current favourite 'baroque cello' recording is by ANGELA EAST.
It is refreshingly 'different'; definitely not stodgy or 'academic'. It may not be to everybody's taste but I personally find it totally engrossing.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/bach-the-cello-suites-mw0001957578

[Bryn]

Ahem. Treemendous struff, eh?

[Thropplenoggin]

Ophélie Gaillard has recorded it twice. Do you have a preference?

[Bryn]

Ophélie Gaillard has recorded it twice. Do you have a preference?

Her recordings are new to me. I will investigate. However, my current favourites are the Badiarov mentioned by JS.

Would not be high on my list.

[Richard Tarleton]

Fabulous. Thank you Bryn.

[verismissimo]

Ahem. Treemendous struff, eh?

Lovely pictures. Tremendous playing.

It's just that they don't go together. Fakery!

[richardfinegold]

Ahem. Treemendous struff, eh?

How did the squirrels like it?

[richardfinegold]

One must not forget the famous version by Woody Allen in the movie Take The Money And Run where he attempts to accompany his
school marching band by playing Bach on the cello. Every time he positions his chair and starts playing the band comes up behind him and knocks him over.

I don't know how authentic it is but I have Yo Yo's first recording. I also have a Casals recording but it may be lacking the last suite. A few weeks ago I heard lutenist Hopkinson Smith play all the suites on a bass lute. Per the artist, Aa least one of the transcriptions was made by J.S. Bach himself. A different kind of authenticity, perhaps.
There are also recordings featuring Gambas, Double Basses, and Violas.