Bach: 6 Suiten für Violoncello solo

Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer), Pierre Fournier (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Pierre Fournier
• Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
• Audio CD (February 11, 1997)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Archiv Produktion
• ASIN: B000001GRZ
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,971 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

140 of 144 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fournier Bach suites still the best, April 26, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Middletown, CT, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Bach: 6 Suiten für Violoncello solo (Audio CD)

I recently did a comparative listening of the Fournier Bach suites--one of the first pieces of cello music I owned after taking up cello in fourth grade!--with recent recordings by Ma and Rostropovich. I was delighted to find that my old emotional memories of the Fournier were accurate--it is completely musical from end to end, and the sound is gorgeous. The fifth and sixth suites, in particular, are in a class by themselves. The Sarabande to Suite 6 is among the most beautiful cuts of cello music ever recorded. More surprising was the fact that the sound and production quality were also the best of the lot when we listened on studio monitors. Very nice room sound, and good mastering work. We also had the distinct impression that mikes and mike placements were chosen for each movement (e.g., the ambient sound for the heavy prelude to Suite 5 is different from that of the high and fast-moving Gigue to Suite 6.) If you want one recording of the Bach suites, this is the one to get.

100 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'comparaison non comparaison'!, October 8, 2000

By 

J. Anderson (Monterey, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bach: 6 Suiten für Violoncello solo (Audio CD)

Mr. McLellan's brief review for Amazon is dead on! Pierre Fournier's by now classic recording of the Bach Suites remains unchallenged, and the joy of the Kapellmeister is its everlasting motive! There simply is no rival to this rendition of these spiritual classics. The only other claimant on the horizon would be the version by Janos Starker; yet for all of Starker's understanding of Bach's invigorated masterpieces, I don't believe his conception is as cultured or his over-arching execution as fine as that of Fournier. The great assuredness of the Prelude of the first Suite is sweetened by Fournier's rich thought, and his handling of the Prelude of the sixth Suite, with its climbing 1-3-1-5-1-8 pattern, is so humanly drawn- like an illuminated letter in a Book of Hours! -well, as the French say, comparison is no comparison! The fifth Suite with its famous Sarabande hangs like a late afternoon in Sainte-Chapelle! This is art ineffacable and indispensable. Forget Ma's interpretation- he plays it like a schoolboy; Rostropovich is inconstant; Casals ends by offering more Casals than Bach; Heinrich Schiff goes deep but cannot be said to have wagered with Time itself in essaying these Suites - there is impatience in his probing version. Maisky, whose playing is always informed and beautiful, often keeps himself from the very joy that wings from Fournier's body and bow! Fournier doesn't perform, he holds court; and an audience with his Sebastian Bach is more rewarding by leagues than mere regal favor. Listen and be ennobled; here is art beholden to the gods.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Cello Playing and Great Music, October 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bach: 6 Suiten für Violoncello solo (Audio CD)

This is one of the greatest albums of cello music ever made. Fournier knows this music inside and out, and he probes the depths for what is hidden in these suites. Furthermore, Fournier's sound and technique are almost without peer. This album and the ones by Casals could be taken as the absolute references for these works. The recorded sound is superb, especially in this reissue.