Search - Johann Sebastian Bach :: Bach: Cello Suites

A top tier interpretation

Daniel R. Greenfield | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States | 07/04/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I would like to clear up a confusion that may exist with regard to this recording. Tortelier made two recordings of the Bach Cello Suites: one in 1961 and one in 1983. The one that appears on this recording is the latter. The album liner notes make this perfectly clear; furthermore, it is classified as "DDD" on the back of the album, something which would not have been possible on an early Sixties recording. While this second recording does not have the sense of spontaneity which the earlier recording is said to have had, it is still a highly polished and reflective, philosophical account by a 70-year-old master, who has spent his life with these suites. In fact, in later years, Tortelier did not believe the earlier recording had done the suites justice, and it was thanks to EMI that he had the opportunity to reprise his interpretation of the suites in '83. The '83 recording won numerous awards when it was released, including the Diapason d'Or.



Tortelier was born into a poor French family in 1914 and died in 1990, one of the master cellists of the Twentieth Century. He was one of the teachers of Jacqueline Du Pres, and was also the father of Yan Pascal Tortelier, Principal Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. By any estimate, Tortelier's second recording belongs in the top tier of interpretations of the Bach Cello Suites. The only wrinkle is that it is not a period-performance. If that is important to you, then you may want to seek out Anner Bylsma's recording, which is also of very high quality."

THE MOST HUMAN(IST) INTERPRETATION?

Klingsor Tristan | Suffolk | 05/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's surprising how very different interpretations of these amazing solo works can each convince you that, yes, that's the way they should go. Certainly, with Bach's Cello Suites as with Shakespeare's Cleopatra, custom cannot stale their infinite variety. Casals, their rediscoverer, brought his inimitable mix of style and passion to them. Rostropovich seemed to chisel them out of the rock like some marmoreal Michelangelo statue. For some cellists, they are towering and grandiloquent. For others, they are intimate and personal. Some emphasise the joy of the dance movements, others the intensity of the sarabandes, others still apply the strictest theories of authentic period performance to them.



Anyone of a certain age will recall the passionate commitment to these Suites shown by a highly charismatic Tortelier in his TV masterclasses of 50 years or so ago. That same commitment shines through these performances from the 80's. These are readings where you can take technique for granted. What's more important, Tortelier allows the infinite variety of the Suites themselves and each of the movements within them to speak their own language. There's charm, wit, humour, beauty, emotion, spirituality as it's called for. Tortelier understands that these are dance suites, but that they also encapsulate great profundity in their notes. If I had to sum up his interpretations in one word, it would be their `humanity'. And that seems particularly right for the secular works Bach wrote with such obvious pleasure while he was at the court of the young Prince Leopold in Cothen. Away from the world of church services, Bach produced works that were just as profound in a different, I'm tempted to say more human, certainly more humanist way. That is something that seems particularly close to Tortelier's heart and thinking. And it comes out wonderfully in these performances."