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Your Bach Cello Suites recordings

143K views 462 replies 107 participants last post by  charles815553 
#1 · (Edited)
I have Amazon Prime and a number of recordings of Bach's Cello Suites are on there. I also have a CD set by Maurice Gendron and a set by Rostropovich. Rostropovich to me plays with a lot of command and strength, excellently. The others all have their excellencies also.

The Gendron set is by far my favorite. There is something about the feeling and sheer beauty he puts into it that rings right with me. And the quality of the recordings is fantastic.

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The Cello Suites are my go to music when I am writing. It is perfect for me.

Which recording (s) do you have and enjoy the most?
 
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#7 ·
Mines arived in this order: Antonio Janigro, Pau Casals, Rostropovich, Pierre Fournier (DG), Robert Cohen (included in my Bach edition), Yo Yo Ma (partial set included in a Ma's boxset), Paul Tortelier (EMI), this last is my favorite lately. I'm considering the Bylsma set in order to add a HIP recording to my collection.
 
#8 ·
I heard Ralf Kirsbaum play the cello suites at the Wigmore hall many years ago amazing that Bach could write music for ne stringed instrument that could keep an audience interested for a whole evening!
as for discs I have the Fournier which is a wonderfully fleet traversal and Casals' pioneering account.
 
#9 ·
Rostropovich and Casals.

I used to have a version by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, but found it didn't engage my attention.
 
#11 · (Edited)
I recently spent a lot of time listening to 6. I was really surprised by how disappointing Casals is, apart from the prelude. He under-articulates the dances, so that there isn't a feel of the phrases bouncing off each other. The prelude is a great performance IMO, probably the best thing I've heard from him.

From historic performances I enjoyed Starker a lot. Expressive and poised and controlled.

People who like the music played like an aria - big phrases which sing out - will really love Arnold Tomàs - I think he is the best ever at this sort of style.

Another interesting musician is Paolo Pandolfo. I think it gives the music the feeling of melodies arriving on a breeze in the Allemande of 6. Another really distinctive moment is is the second gavotte. The mood is introspective. There's no real sense of a "singing forth"

Another one I like is 2, and for me here I have a clear favourite, Badiarov. For 6 on shoulder cello, Terakado is refined and moving - Terakado is well worth seeking out.
 
#25 ·
Heinrich Schiff

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I have a ton of recordings of the Cello Suites but I've always agreed with reviewer Jed Distler on when it comes to this one. No one does the dances like Schiff.

"Bach's cello suites abound in superlative recordings, from Casals' still potent pioneering set (Naxos) to riveting cycles from Boris Pergamenschikov (Hänssler) and Torleif Thedéen (BIS) released on the cusp of the millennium. In between are classic versions by Pierre Fournier (DG), Paul Tortelier (EMI), Mstislav Rostropovich (EMI), Andre Navarra (Calliope), Anner Bylsma (his Sony remake), Ralph Kirshbaum (Virgin), and multiple Janos Starker editions. I keep these in my library as an oenophile cultivates a choice collection of fine wines. When I want to break out the vintage port, figuratively speaking, I reach for Heinrich Schiff's arrestingly individual, musically profound, and sonically sumptuous 1985 EMI traversals.


You notice his sound first. It's a rich tone through and through: not always pretty, granted, but incredibly focused, be it in the Sixth Suite's stratospheric tessitura or in bass lines that alternately jab and sustain. While some cellists like to linger over the Preludes, Schiff instead gets down to business, sculpting the harmonic groupings in the manner of a keyboard player. Schiff's rhythmic vitality and pinpointed accents bring all the dance movements to joyful life. The melodies always bend, curve, and surge over the bar line, avoiding predictable patterns of accentuation. With all that, the listener never loses the beat or, more accurately, the pulse of life. Ornaments are present, but don't draw attention to themselves.



Originally issued at full-price and quickly deleted, EMI resurrects this unjustly buried treasure for its Double Forte series. It's like getting a bottle of Dom Perignon for the price of Sangria. Even if you already have one or two Bach Cello Suite cycles in your larder, this one is special. Really special."
 
#27 ·
Interesting thread and quite a few recordings I had not heard of before which I shall investigate.
I've heard most of the standard recommendations, I think - Starker, Casals, Rostropovich, Tortelier, Ma .... etc ...
All of them very acceptable in their own ways. :)

But for some reason I keep coming back to Csaba Onczay on Naxos. I'd plead exceptions on some movements, but overall he just nails the pieces for me. It's like coming home and just being comfortable. It's the pacing as much as anything else, it just sounds right for me most of the time.

 
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