Customer Reviews

Bach: 6 Suites for Cello, BWV 1007-1012

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shoppers should note that Anner Bylsma has recorded the Bach Suites twice. The 2 volume set Sony #48047 was recorded in 1992, while Sony #61811 and #61812 are reissues of a 1979 recording. Both are outstanding. The later set, which I own, was recorded on a very large instrument, the "Stradivarius Servais," in a very resonant recording. Some critics prefer the performance on the earlier set, which has a rather dry sound. I have been waiting for it to be reissued so that I can obtain Volume 2.

To those of you who are chary of "historically informed" interpretations, you needn't be in this case. Though presumably Bylsma's approach is scholarly and "correct", there is nothing objective about his interpretation. It is sinewy, chocolately, dramatic, as winning and hearfelt an interpretation as any of the great performances on the modern cello by Cassals, Fournier, Rostropovich et al.

Bylsma uses an actual period cello, not a reproduction, but manages to bring it alive and to coax out of it the sweetest sounds. Bylsma's tempi are faster than those familiar with modern interpretations might be prepared for, but his musicianship is so keen that the most precise phrasing remains intact and Bach's music never ends up sounding forced or rushed.

Do your best to judge from the samples above, but I urge you to take a risk with this.

As a student of baroque cello, studying under one of Bylsma's own students, I find these recordings inspiring. They are always fresh and interesting, with new information to be found. His version here is simply one of the many ways of playing the pieces, and I think that, compared with the Rostropovich, Casals, and Ma recordings (which I also own), his is the only one that shows their flexibility. Using a baroque bow and tuning down to A=415 helps, of course, as does using gut strings and studying the patterns of baroque dance.

I met Mr Bylsma recently at a masterclass at my conservatory, and I found him intelligent, insightful, and passionate. These recordings show those exact qualities.

I love the tone of both instruments, and I love the way he makes the pieces speak, perhaps even with the same rhetorical ideas that J.S. Bach himself would have been considering. Rhetoric was a huge part of composition in the 17th and 18th centuries; none of the "modern" recordings, done on "normal" cellos, do this relationship quite as much justice as Mr Bylsma.

If you're interested in finding a generic, fair version of Bach's Cello Suites, I'd suggest a Yo-Yo Ma recording in one of the bargain bins at the local mall record store.

If, like me, you can hear traces of transcendence in this music, let me recommend this recording wholeheartedly.

First, he uses a very noted cello, the Stadivarius "Servais", currently housed at the Smithsonian Institute and created by Stradivari in the early 1700's. What's so unique about this cello is it's size - the booklet notes state that it's about 3cm longer than a normal cello. It is one of a precious few cellos designed in this larger style by Stradivari to survive to the present day without ever having had anyone attempt to cut it, trim it down to "normal" size, or tamper in any way with its original design.

In terms of why that's important, the answer is in the suites - deep, full, reverberant bass from this cello, which in this recording is strung with a combination of both gut and modern strings and played with a period-style bow. For Suite No. 6, Bylsma uses a 5-stringed violoncello piccolo, not the "Servais".

Bylsma is himself a leading pioneer of the historical "period instrument" school of classical music, but the sheer heart and musical inspiration he pours into these recordings makes this effort much more than a historical or mechanical exercise. What it is, really, is a unique result - exceptional talent and skill, combined with a noted instrument, and a good recording (a 20-bit production recorded at a NY college concert hall in 1992).

Bach's solo cello suites are some of the most profound music ever composed - I never tire of listening to these discs.

I consider this recording of the cello suites to be the ultimate one! Mr Bylsma is in every aspect an absolutely amazing cellist and he plays the music in a way that is overwhelming and gives you the feeling that you are discovering the truth for the first time! Through this recording, concerts and private lessons, Anner Bylsma has given me a lot of understanding of the suites and also other music by Bach. He has the golden key to the tempos and the character of each movement. After all, it is "just" a question of playing a couple of dance movements! All those cellists, sitting for hours trying to deeply understand the music of Bach and using all sorts of ways to do it. Just look a Yo-Yo Ma! His recording is very good but his playing is hardly ever close to the natural and free feeling that Bylsma manages to express the music with. I also strongly recommend his book "The Fencing Master" (ponticello.com). All cellists interested in the basic aspects of playing the suites should go and get it. But first, get this cd and enjoy! Everything else would be a compromise!

After listening many performances of these wonderful works, played by Rostropovich, Fournier, Casals, Gendron, Maiski, Yo-Yo Ma... I've finally found the artist I think gives his best in this amazing collection of Suites: Anner Bylsma.

Bylsma represents, in my opinion, the most baroque use of the instrument and the bow you can listen nowadays, even we are living in a time in which there're many new and good cellists. His conception of the works has become much more deep and personal; baroque but in a different style. Some people think this last recordings for Sony Vivarte (DDD) is much more close to the romantic way of playing than his first recordings available (Sony, ADD). I think both are baroque in a similar style, but what we listen in the first ADD recording is a younger player who is stronger and more vivid in his way of playing. The articulation of the first recordings is closer to what the people use to think baroque is, but because of the tradition of listening very fast and fresh tempi when this music is being played on authentic instruments. The sound of the cello could be another reason too, in the sense this one in the DDD recording (6th Suite uses a piccolo cello) is a little bigger and with a more deep and expansive sound, more powerful and more romantic in some way, but never in the style Bylsma plays, which I find very appropriate of a certain age, when knowledge comes to you after years of exploring these works (just remember how long Mstislav Rostropovich waited for recording the work for EMI). Anyway, even Bylsma plays in a cello much more similar to those used by Rostropovich, for example, it's impossible to mistake them playing, because of the very different style, the way he uses the bow, the sense of the phrases, the accentuation... This last recording form 1992 is the climax of a man and his knowledge about a music, in a moment in which he could still make it clear and well done. I really think that the tempi are a choice Bylsma took, and not the physical limitation of a mature player. The first recording in which I find Bylsma not so fresh like in his previous performances is in his recordings of Suites 1 & 5 for EuroArts (in a wonderful DVD with more Bach and Kurtág); but this 1992 versions I think that are the results of a long journey of researching, thinking and feeling the Cello Suites, one of the key works in the history of western music.

The use of a little cello for Suite No.6 makes this last piece much more light and fresh, very interesting for finishing a travel in which Suite No.5 is so dark and full of sorrows. It's a pleasure to finish in this way, something Bylsma uses to do, like he made in his ADD recording.

A wonderful recording, which I have together with his ADD recording (Sony too) and which are my favourites. After listening this performances many years I can't really listen any "modern or romantic" version without the sensation of something is wrong.

Listen up, sports fans! If you haven't heard the six Suites for solo cello by JS Bach, no matter how old you are, you haven't fully lived. Each of the suites has the experiential equivalent of: climbing a mountain in the Himalayas (I have!); watching your team sweep the World Series (I have!!); giving an SI swimsuit model a sponge bath (I have... but she was only four years old at the time.); and meditating for a year under a bodhi tree (I haven't). Without Bach, you haven't lived 40 years; you've lived one year forty times!

Baroque cellist Anner Bylsma is, as baseball announcers say, the whole package, a four skills player: left hand on the fingerboard for pitch and tempo, right hand on the bow for phrasing, left brain for understanding the complex rhythms and rhythmic patterns, right brain for emotional depth.

For those blessed souls who know the Bach cello suites well enough to hum them in the shower, the question is, why bother to acquire another performance of them when you're already thrilled enough with your Rostropovich or Casals? The answer is that Bylsma understands Bach in a different dialect, the language of historically informed performance, and has the skills to make you hear the difference. That's the joy of great music, by the way; it never gets trite, it gets more meaningful every time you hear it carefully. Listening to Bylsma right before or after Yo Yo Ma, you have every justification for adoring Ma's bold richness of timbre and thinking Bylsma is just too fussy about nuances. Listen again another day, however, and you might find Bylsma's headlong dance tempi exhilarating and Ma's bigness merely blunt.

There's another performance of the six suites on Baroque cello, with authentic gut strings, that you might also want to hear - that of cellist Jaap ter Linden, which is included in the Brilliant Classics complete Bach box. Honestly, I've only once heard a performance of these suites, by anyone, that I didn't enjoy... and that one wasn't recorded.

There's no denying the artistry and technical gifts that are evident in this set. But the store where I bought this CD made Bylsma's their recommended recording of the Bach suites, just as some other reviewers call this the "ultimate" version; and there's where I differ.

Bylsma is very liberal with tempos, rushing in some places and going painfully slow in others, sometimes within the same movement. Maybe this fits in with Baroque practice, but to my ear it was kind of "Romantic". The results can be very expressive, expecially in the Preludes to each suite and some of the slower dance movements. Especially outstanding are Bylsma's Prelude and Sarabande of Suite No. 5, and his handling of the Allemande of Suite No. 6 (not usually one of my favorite movements in the Suites). But in the faster movements, the sense of dance was often lost. Some of the older recordings, such as the wonderful set by Maurice Gendron, have a more stable, "classical" notion of tempo, and focus on bringing out the dance character of even the slower movements. When it comes to the Bourées or Gigue in Suite No. 3, Byslma's approach can't compare, IMHO.

Another difference to Gendron is in the phrasing. Bylsma's phrasing often seems more like recitative or, in places, Sprechstimme -- it was as if his instrument was a human voice halfway between song and speech. This is a terrific achievement, but makes for a very idiosyncratic, somewhat psychological reading of the pieces. Generally, I found Gendron sunnier and more lyrical, and Bylsma more inward-turned, even anxious at times; though I can imagine there being times when Bylsma's take on the pieces would be more in tune with my mood.

I'm not a connoisseur of Baroque performance, so some might think my comments quite philistine. But if you're looking for your first set of CDs of this piece, I'd recommend going with Gendron or maybe one of the Casals sets first, so you can appreciate the very particular character and accomplishments of Bylsma's version.

This is my desert-island set of the Bach cello suites
and I do have a few other great recordings, among them
Yo Yo Ma and Bylsma's one-time student, Pieter Wispelwey.

Though the recording of the 1701 Servais Stradivarius
can seem a little dry with a subtle metallic ring when
strings are crossed, the tone resonates very deeply
in the lower notes giving a wonderful dark sound.

The rhythm and dynamics seem ideal and build up the
climax effectively in specific pieces like the 4th Prelude.
Bylsma plays this piece as I have never heard it--
dramatic and darkly romantic. Bravo.

And in this 4th Prelude, notice the crispness with which
Bylsma bows the double-stopped chords. Each note is rung
out distinctly as Bach would have sounded on a great
organ, creating some grand, majestic north German harmony
on an intimate instrument like the cello.

Where the notes are played arpeggio, the stress of the
low "pedal" note also comes out in the style an organist
would play them, firmly and with commitment.

Enjoy!

This has got to be the best recording of the cello suites available! Some might quibble about many of Bylsma's decisions - including the use of a modern bow - but period performance shouldn't become just a matter of rules - performers were not like that in Bach's time. Bylsma provides an amazingly sensitive, heartfelt reading of the suites, and the Servais cello has an absolutely amazing sound. The cello piccolo in the sixth suite is a special treat too. Some of Bylsma's tempi may take a bit getting used to, but some of the improvisations are wonderful - the end of the prelude to the D minor for example. This will always be my companion!