[SanAntone]

I tend to go for some of the more recent recordings and/or PI:

Jean-Guihen Queryras
Pieter Wispelwey (most recent)
Arnau Tomas
Truls Mørk
Yo-Yo Ma (3rd, "Evolutions")
Alisa Weilerstein
Thomas Demenga
Mario Brunello
Weiland Kuijken
Bruno Cocset
Sergey Malov
Maja Weber
Paolo Beschi
Istvan Vardai
Suren Bagratuni
Sebastian Klinger
André Larent O'Neil

 

[SanAntone]

Since Casals about 300 sets of cello suites have been made, and more than 100 of these are available to day, even if one has to search dilligently to find some of them, so there is much to choose from. I have heard quite a lot of them, and only a few of them were - what I would call - unsuccesful, but of course my taste also plays a role.

Like Bulldog I find Rostropovich and Maisky too romantic, and this also true of Shafran, Zagorinsky and Vectomov. If there is anything I avoid in these works, it is overdone vibrato.

SanAntone's recommendations are all safe choices, except that I find Weilerstein a bit pretentious and contrieved (the same applies more or less to Emmanuelle Bertrand), and I don't warm to Thomas Demenga.

I'll add Lucia Swarts, Marko Ylönen, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, David Geringas, Colin Carr, Frans Helmerson, Heinrich Schiff, Ralph Kirshbaum, Christoph Stradner, Enrico Dindo and my two countrymen Toke Møldrup and Morten Zeuthen. Also Dmitri Badiarov and Ryo Terakado on violoncello da spalla and Paolo Pandolfo an viola da gamba. And one must have heard Casals at least once. But I could go on for an hour more.

Which Colin Carr: The live recording from 1998 or the more recent studio release from 2013? I am also glad to see you mention Dmitri Badiarov, Ryo Terakado, and Paolo Pandolfo. I knew about these but could not call them to mind when I posted.

 

[SanAntone]

Just to indicate how much personal taste enters into the matter, I attended a recital where she performed all six. I left before the end. On the other hand, I loved her performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto (in concert with the NY Phil).

I only have a few, but I like Starker (Mercury), Fournier and Bylsma.

I don't think these suites should be performed as a group. No more than one or two (separated by other works), IMO, should be programmed at a concert. I never listen to more than one or two in one sitting.

I don't listen to the old recordings. Each year there are probably a dozen new recordings, with SOTA sound and often using a period cello that I have plenty enough to listen to and rarely go back to earlier recordings.

 

[SanAntone]

Has anyone read Isserlis' book on the cello suites? I'm curious if it is too simplistic or too technical or, as Goldlicks said, just right.

View attachment 164391

I am sure there is a lot of good information about the suites, but I am not a fan of his writing style. He constantly offers conversational asides which could be left out and improve the read.

 

[SanAntone]

I think he omits almost all repeats in this recording. However a few years ago he recorded suites 1, 2 and 6 for Pan Classics doing all the repeats. Except for suite 6 his playing is better and more committed in the recording without the repeats, but its truncated almost fragmentary nature can't be ignored. The repeats were of course indicated because they were meant to be done.

I take your point, but hearing these suites played on the Baroque shoulder cello is worthwhile nonetheless. Also, Malov explained why he chose to not take the repeats, seeking to create an overall unity in the work by truncating the length. You may reject his reasoning, but his interpretive decision was not slipshod.

 

[SanAntone]

The form he’s talking about isn’t a form within a movement, neither is it the form of a whole suite. It’s the unspecified form of the set of six suites

I was unclear in my previous post, but understood that to be his meaning, i.e. unity across all six suites. He probably thinks, and I agree, that when all the repeats as are taken it makes a performance of all six suites too long for the unity he is striving for to be felt.