Cello

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Cello Masterworks is an eight-CD box set of previously released material recorded in the 1980s and 1990s, and presumably so familiar to his fans that the package doesn't even come with a booklet. It really is a no-frills affair, right down to the thin cardboard sleeves that repeat the same photograph on the box, instead of offering original cover art. But the greatest disappointment is that only three of J.S. Bach's Six Cello Suites were included, so listeners seeking them should forego this budget package and find the complete suites, which Ma recorded twice.

The growing catalogue of Platti albums on Brilliant Classics includes his Cello Concertos (BC94722), his keyboard works (BC95118) and a first recording of chamber music (BC94007). Taken together they paint a vivid and engaging portrait of an 18th-century musician/composer who came to exercise on generations of composers writing for the cello. Platti himself was proficient on several instruments but he retained a special affection for the cello, producing as many as 28 cello concertos – even more than Vivaldi – and other works including the 12 accompanied cello sonatas on this album. These are divided into two groups of six, both dated 1725 – just a few years after Bach’s cello suites.

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
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© 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).

Total of 95 tracks, approximately 7 hours and 26 minutes of recording time.
Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 - Prelude (Mork), Saint-Saëns: The Swan (du Pré), Piazzolla: Oblivion (Gautier-Capuçon), Tchaikovsky: Rococo Theme and Night Variations - Theme, Variation 1 (Isserlis, Gardiner), Vaughan Williams: Six Etudes on English Folk Songs - No. 2 (Eileen Croxford), and more.