Pablo Casals Cello Bach

Celebrated for his pivotal role in resurrecting the Bach suites for solo cello and championing their performance throughout his career, Pablo Casals' repertoire was much more far-reaching. Perhaps the best way to observe the breadth of his interests is to investigate the works he chose to perform as encores. Flashy, virtuosic show pieces certainly had their place in this repertoire, but Casals looked more favorable upon works that highlighted the more lyrical, soulful aspects of his instrument.

A consummate artist whose approach to the cello was directed toward breathing life into the music, Paul Tortelier earned the respect and affection of countless colleagues. An enduring friendship with Pablo Casals found him playing, in the words of a French critic, Apollo to Casals' Jupiter. Like Casals, Tortelier emphasized using but one finger at a time on the string to allow free vibration. Fantasy and emotional freedom marked his performances and attracted numerous young players.

The current popularity of Bach's six cello suites can be traced back to the Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, who was the first to include these pieces in the concert repertoire. The young violinist Jorge Jimenez, also Catalan, is a great admirer of the great cellist, coming only a few kilometres from Casals' birthplace. But Bach's cello suites already attracted attention in the 19th century, in the course of the Leipzig Bach Renaissance around Felix Mendelssohn. The violin virtuoso and teacher Ferdinand David made an arrangement for the violin. Jorge Jimenez uses this edition from 1866 for his interpretation. It contains unusually varied and for that time very precise indications for the performance of the music. For this version, entirely in the 19th century reading, Jorge Jimenez uses a romantic violin and a bow from the period. His extraordinary interpretation of Bach's cello suites is the second part of his series "Rethinking Bach", which Jimenez began with his own highly acclaimed arrangement of the Goldberg Variations for solo violin (PC 10434).

Pieter Wispelwey - JS Bach - 6 Suites For Cello Solo (2012) [2CD+DVD] {EPR-Classic}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 736 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 344 Mb
DVD9 -> 2.73 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 16:9 | Dolby AC3, 2 ch / Dolby AC3, 6 ch
Subs: English, Nederlands, Deutsch, Francais | ~ 52h | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 152 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2012 EPR-Classic / Evil Penguin Records Classic | 2012 EPRC 0012
Classical / Chamber Music / Cello

OK, are you ready for something completely different? From someone who has already recorded two complete sets of Bach's six suites for solo cello, BWV 1007-1012, no less? Where to begin? Dutch historical-performance specialist Pieter Wispelwey disregards the long performance tradition associated with these six suites, which seem like cousins to Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin but are actually quite different in character (there are no sonatas, for one thing). Even players of the Baroque cello sometimes seem to have Pablo Casals' magisterial recordings in their heads, but Casals is not in the building at all for these readings. They seem to rest on three principles.

J.S. Bach - The Cello Suites - Nina Kotova (2014) {Warner Classics Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (prestoclassical.co.uk) -> 765 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 323 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) | 5% repair rar
© 2014 Warner Classics / Nina Kotova
Classical / Baroque / Chamber Music / Cello

The very short list of credits on this Warner Classics release includes Russian American cellist Nina Kotova and producer Adam Abeshouse, who delivers a very closely miked sound in the frequently used Performing Arts Recital Hall of Purchase College on Long Island, New York. But perhaps the uncredited star on this set of Bach's Six Suites for solo cello is Kotova's 1679 Stradivarius instrument, which Kotova exploits to the maximum. Her reading is one of those in the line coming down from Pablo Casals, with a high degree of expressiveness generated through variations in tempo and articulation. Hear any of the concluding gigues, which come off like late Romantic witches' dances, for an example, or the increasingly unexpected relationships among the Gavotte sections in the Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012 (CD 2, track 17).