Bach Cello Suites

Started by Que, September 14, 2007, 07:39:03 AM

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premont

Quote from: Mandryka on February 17, 2019, 04:08:30 AM
Some comments from Valli's booklet essay may be worth thinking about

Quote Valli:
. . . Consequently, I respectfully decided to go beyond the great Bach's instructions. I dared to imagine that if only he had thought of it, or if only a cellist had proposed the idea, he would not have had anything against the solution that I adopted in his fourth Suite, in which – in order to render the execution more comfortable and final effect more harmonious – I used the same violoncello piccolo as indicated for the sixth Suite, lowering the first and second strings, respectively to e-flat and a-flat. In E-flat Major (the key of the fourth Suite), this solution creates a sonority very rich in harmonic overtones and simplified fingering patterns, due to the possibility of using many open strings. It was common practice of baroque composers to take full advantage of the rich natural sonorities offered by open strings, sometimes going to great lengths of inventing tricky scordatura tunings in order to do so (as evidenced clearly in the music of the Bohemian-Austrian composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber).


But this works against Bach's intentions, since his idea of using the E-flat major mode on a standard cello without doubt was to change the general sonority of the piece by making it impossible to use open strings that often.
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aukhawk

Quote from: Mandryka on February 17, 2019, 04:08:30 AM
Some comments from Valli's booklet essay may be worth thinking about

Very interesting, thanks for sharing those.

Omicron9

I have been quite enjoying the new Bach Cello Suites performed on viola by Kim Kashkashian (ECM).  Solid performance and the usual fine ECM recording quality.  Recommended.

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premont

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premont

Quote from: (: premont :) on March 18, 2019, 02:09:16 PM
That's all you have to say??

Ooh, I understand. :-[

Thanks QUE for finding the thread.

In these days I am traversing all the recordings, I own of these suites, and will probably write a few words about at least some of them.
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Ghost of Baron Scarpia

Quote from: (: premont :) on March 18, 2019, 02:57:53 PM
Ooh, I understand. :-[

Thanks QUE for finding the thread.

In these days I am traversing all the recordings, I own of these suites, and will probably write a few words about at least some of them.

I was intending to put a few words here when I finish the set I am currently listening to, Yo-Yo Ma III. Half-way through.


Mandryka

#566
I've been enjoying Richard Tunnicliffe's moderate, middle of the road, fluid, self-effacing, unostentatious, beautiful sounding performances of the last three this morning.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

premont

Rachel Podger plays Bach's cello suites BWV 1007 - 1012 in her own transcription for baroque violin (Channel Classics).

Having listened to these I think Podger demonstrates convincingly that the cello suites are well suited for violin. Had Bach left them in this shape, no one would have pondered.However Bach intended them for cello, and Podger's pivotal reason for playing them on violin is obviously, that she wants to play them but does not play the cello.

Technically Podger does not play them much differently from what some HIP cellist might do, and the main attraction of the recording is not her use of the violin but her interpretation, which is sympathetic, expressive and suitably rhetorical. Even a cello rendering of this kind would be remarkable.The violin sounds warm and sweet and the sound quality is state of the art.

In the prelude to suite no.5 I do not hear other dissonances than the ones the composer intended.
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Gurn Blanston

Quote from: (: premont :) on April 30, 2019, 02:40:30 PM
Rachel Podger plays Bach's cello suites BWV 1007 - 1012 in her own transcription for baroque violin (Channel Classics).

Having listened to these I think Podger demonstrates convincingly that the cello suites are well suited for violin. Had Bach left them in this shape, no one would have pondered.However Bach intended them for cello, and Podger's pivotal reason for playing them on violin is obviously, that she wants to play them but does not play the cello.

Technically Podger does not play them much differently from what some HIP cellist might do, and the main attraction of the recording is not her use of the violin but her interpretation, which is sympathetic, expressive and suitably rhetorical. Even a cello rendering of this kind would be remarkable.The violin sounds warm and sweet and the sound quality is state of the art.

In the prelude to suite no.5 I do not hear other dissonances than the ones the composer intended.

Thanks for that, I have been considering this (love Podger) but hadn't seen much about it. Sounds like my kind of recording!

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schnittkease

I'm not so sold on the Podger. We cellists don't steal the Sonatas and Partitas!


Mandryka

Quote from: (: premont :) on April 30, 2019, 02:40:30 PM
Rachel Podger plays Bach's cello suites BWV 1007 - 1012 in her own transcription for baroque violin (Channel Classics).

Having listened to these I think Podger demonstrates convincingly that the cello suites are well suited for violin. Had Bach left them in this shape, no one would have pondered.However Bach intended them for cello, and Podger's pivotal reason for playing them on violin is obviously, that she wants to play them but does not play the cello.

Technically Podger does not play them much differently from what some HIP cellist might do, and the main attraction of the recording is not her use of the violin but her interpretation, which is sympathetic, expressive and suitably rhetorical. Even a cello rendering of this kind would be remarkable.The violin sounds warm and sweet and the sound quality is state of the art.

In the prelude to suite no.5 I do not hear other dissonances than the ones the composer intended.

Yes this sounds right to me.

5 I had a bad transfer, which has been corrected. In fact all the suites sound better, sweeter, in the correct transfer, 
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aukhawk

#571
Quote from: schnittkease on April 30, 2019, 07:39:08 PM
I'm not so sold on the Podger. We cellists don't steal the Sonatas and Partitas!

It's not the same thing though.  The Cello Suites are in the main not polyphonic in the normal sense, whereas the Sonatas and Partitas in the main are.  So a very good violinist should not be technically challenged by playing the Cello Suites (more like an advanced student exercise), but I imagine a very good cellist would still face difficulties playing the S&P.
In any case, Vito Paternoster has recorded the complete Sonatas and Partitas on cello - with fair success I think, although several passages are decidedly edgy, but that's in Paternoster's style anyway, even in the Cello Suites.  Anner Bylsma has also recorded Sonata 2 and Partita 3.

Returning to Podger - Spotify is only offering a couple of tracks as I write, but these sound very good and a lot better than I was expecting (given that Podger is a long way from being my favourite in the S&P anyway) and I'll certainly want to get the set.
This quote caught my eye - from the review on Presto (my bold) -
QuoteThe final suite, composed for a five-string instrument, poses its own special challenges to any string-player, and Podger's solution here is adroit: she switches to the viola for the lower-lying phrases, and thanks to some extremely clever engineering and patching you'd be hard-pressed to spot the joins.
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/articles/2614--recording-of-the-week-rachel-podger-plays-the-bach-cello-suites

amw

It sounds like this is more of a studio production than something that could be realised in an actual performance (though I guess there's no reason Podger couldn't commission someone to build a five-string viola piccola or something).

Still I was impressed with the samples so I'm likely to pirate buy it

aukhawk

Such as this - the extra string is tuned to a low C.  https://milanpala.com/


Ghost of Baron Scarpia

Quote from: schnittkease on April 30, 2019, 07:39:08 PM
I'm not so sold on the Podger. We cellists don't steal the Sonatas and Partitas!

If you could you would! :)

amw

Quote from: amw on May 01, 2019, 01:06:18 AM
It sounds like this is more of a studio production than something that could be realised in an actual performance (though I guess there's no reason Podger couldn't commission someone to build a five-string viola piccola or something).
On listening, that would have been a better choice than what she did, which sounds more like a duet for violin and viola—the joins are extremely obvious (at least to me) because the two instruments sound quite different in terms of timbre and tone quality. As long as you're going the Studio Magic route you may as well have just restrung a violin with viola strings, or on the more obviously impossible end of things, have sustained 4 note chords and extra voices and so on.

I do like it better than her S&Ps admittedly but think that's just because she's a better violinist now.

aukhawk

More likeable anyway.  On the new recording (the few bits I've heard anyway) she seems to have scaled right back on her mannerism of pUShing at aLMost eVEry nOTe she pLAys, which spoils her S&P recording for me.

I also enjoy listening to the Cello Suites played on double bass.  It's a shame this one from Edgar Meyer is only a part-set (2, 1 and 5) because the playing is very likeable (and rather in a style as suggested by the cover image).  I prefer the rough edges on this one to some of the other more sumptuous double bass recordings out there.


premont

Quote from: aukhawk on May 01, 2019, 12:03:10 AM

In any case, Vito Paternoster has recorded the complete Sonatas and Partitas on cello - with fair success I think, although several passages are decidedly edgy, but that's in Paternoster's style anyway, even in the Cello Suites.  Anner Bylsma has also recorded Sonata 2 and Partita 3.

There are two more cellists who have recorded the violin S&P

Norbert Hilger:

https://www.amazon.de/Sonaten-Partiten-Bwv-1001-1006-Cello/dp/B001BTWF2K/ref=sr_1_4?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&keywords=norbert+hilger&qid=1556787207&s=music&sr=1-4-catcorr

and Markku Luolajan-Mikkola:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8079654--bach-j-s-sonatas-partitas-for-solo-violin-bwv1001-1006
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aukhawk

#578
Hmm - are there any other recordings of the Cello Suites on violin? (I know about the ones on viola) - if not, it's

Quote from: schnittkease on April 30, 2019, 07:39:08 PM
I'm not so sold on the Podger. We cellists don't steal the Sonatas and Partitas!

Cellists 4, Violinists 1   :D  (We won't start on baritone sax - excruciatingly awful - or marimba)

premont

Quote from: aukhawk on May 02, 2019, 03:59:17 AM
Hmm - are there any other recordings of the Cello Suites on violin?

Not as far as I know.

Generally I am not keen on arrangements for other than bowed string instruments. However there are a few interesting recordings of arrangements for harpsichord (Leonhardt, Remy, Evans, Loreggian and Rübsam) and Marion Verbrüggen's recording on recorder is also listenable.

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