Bach : The Cello Suites - Steven Isserlis

Bach : The Cello Suites

Steven Isserlis

Gramophone Award Winner 2007 - Category Best Instrumental.

CD1: Suite No 1 in G major, BWV1007 Suite No 2 in D minor, BWV1008 Suite No 3 in C major, BWV1009 Suite No 4 in E flat major, BWV1010 CD2: Suite No 5 in C minor, BWV1011 Suite No 6 in D major, BWV1012 Traditional arr. BEAMISH The Song of the Birds Suite No 1 in G major, BWV1007. i Prelude (Anna Magdalena manuscript) Suite No 1 in G major, BWV1007. i Prelude (Johann Peter Kellner manuscript) Suite No 1 in G major, BWV1007. i Prelude (Johann Christoph Westphal collection

This is the most wonderful cello-playing, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music.

"For [Isserlis]the Suites suggest a meditative cycle on the life of Christ, rather like Biber’s Mystery Sonatas. He points out that this is “a personal feeling, not a theory”, but it has to be said that once you know that he is thinking of the Agony in the Garden during the darkly questioning Second Suite (the five stark chords towards the end of the Prelude representing the wounds of Christ), the Crucifixion in the wearily troubled Fifth or the Resurrection in the joyous Sixth, it adds immense power and interest to his performances.

But then, this is also the most wonderful cello-playing, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music, as well as the most musically alert and vivid. Not everyone will like the brisk tempi (though the Allemandes, for instance, gain in architectural coherence), but few will fail to be charmed by Isserlis’s sweetly singing tone, his perfectly voiced chords and superb control of articulation and dynamic – the way the final chord of the First Prelude dies away is spellbinding. There are so many other delights: the subtle comings and goings of the Third Prelude, the nobly poised Fifth Allemande, the swaggering climax that is the Sixth Gigue – I cannot mention them all. Suffice to say that Isserlis’s Bach is a major entrant into an already highly distinguished field, and a disc many will want to return to again and again."

Lindsay Kemp, GRAMOPHONE

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Fanfare Review:

BACH Cello Suites: Nos. 1–6 • Steven Isserlis 2 CDs: 137:08

The first four suites occupy the first CD. The immediacy of Henry Wood Hall in London is evident from the first bars of the Suite in G major. Isserlis produces a warm tone, richly founded; his phrasing is easeful and there is a palpable sense of dedication underlining each note; improvisation, flow, and focus are well balanced. The music’s particulars and long line are finely honed. The manner in which Isserlis has been presented is gratifying in its intimacy.

This is music that Isserlis seems to have lived with for many years. His playing has familiarity but not contempt (probably impossible to tire of this music, which must have boundless possibilities). Isserlis’s pointing is lively, his tempos anything but moribund; these are, after all, suites of dances; even the Sarabandes must have a sense of movement, which they do here but without sacrificing their eloquence. The opening of the Suite in D Minor (No. 2) is especially lovely: a searching beginning.

I have Casals’s recordings, and Starker’s, and have long appreciated the selfless dedication these musicians have brought to this fascinating music. Heinrich Schiff (EMI) was a revelation to me for really underlining the spirit of the dance that Bach took as his starting point, and it’s been interesting to hear Harnoncourt (long before he was conducting) tackle this music when a full-time cellist. Jian Wang (DG) is a very inviting host of this music, and Antonio Meneses (Avie) is an excellent guide.

Isserlis’s set is compelling for reasons sometimes difficult to say. Certainly he brings a sense of purposeful motion to each movement, but never rushing or lacking poise, and he has a just sense of scale that doesn’t reduce the spiritual dimension that Bach’s invention can have. Isserlis’s musical response is both natural and personal, his gift for transporting the listener considerable, and in those two suites that, for me, can be difficult to fathom—the last two—Isserlis finds an expression and a vitality (interpretatively and technically) that is often a revelation.

For the record, Isserlis plays Suite No. 6, written for a five-stringed instrument, on the conventional four strings. Five suites are played on a Stradivarius, leaving No. 5 to a Guadagnini. Isserlis’s booklet note explains his choices, and his five-page essay is comprehensive and illuminating (not least for his pictorial descriptions of each suite, which can be taken or left). Also included is The Song of the Birds, music closely associated with Pablo Casals, and here played, very affectingly, in an arrangement by Sally Beamish. Furthermore, there are three further versions of the Prelude to Suite No. 1, which are played from three different sources: Anna Magdalena (Bach’s wife), Peter Kellner (who probably produced the first copy of Bach’s cello suites—Bach’s original manuscript is lost), and Johann Christoph Westphal. All three have notational differences; Isserlis tends to favor Anna Magdalena as his source.

This Hyperion release is impressive and stimulating for the high production values, for the recording quality that offers a one-to-one between Bach and the listener, for Isserlis’s written annotation, and above all for his searching and intimate traversal of music that gets better and better the more one engages with it. Having spent much time listening to this issue and reading Isserlis’s insights, I can report that it has been time well spent: indeed, I seem to have moved closer to the music and all its enchanting mystery.

FANFARE: COLIN ANDERSON

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by Charlotte Gardner

22 May 2007

The question that immediately springs to mind on the release of a new CD set of the Bach Cello Suites is what, of value, could this recording possibly add to the myriad of existing recordings by the world’s great and not-so-great cellists? Steven Isserlis argues that you don’t record this set of masterpieces for the public, but rather for your own musical accomplishment. I’m not sure I subscribe to that view, but it doesn’t matter as, unlikely as it may sound, I think that Isserlis has done the impossible. He has given the listener something new, and indeed something outstandingly good.

Isserlis has based his interpretation on a combination of the earliest four surviving manuscripts, drawing mostly from the Anna Magdalena copy. He also provides a scholarly treat at the end of the suites – three extra recordings of the first Prelude, played from the earliest three copies in turn. It is a fascinating insight into the variations of tempo, bowing, and ornamentation presented to each cellist as they decide upon their own interpretation.

Along with many cellists, Isserlis feels that the suites aren’t dance suites alone but have a story behind them. He suggests that their expressive journey marks them as “Mystery Suites”, travelling from the nativity (No.1) to the agony in the garden (No.2), the descent of the Holy Spirit (No.3), the Presentation in the Temple (No.4), the Crucifixion (No.5), to the Resurrection (No.6). Whether you agree with this theory or not, it is an interesting take which probably merits further research. In the meantime, it gives the listener another way of hearing the familiar music, and also understanding of a few of the editorial decisions, for example the execution of the final five bar-long chords of the second suite’s Prelude. So different are these long, static chords to anything in any of the other suites, usual practise is to assume they are broken chords. Isserlis, however, has decided to play them as they are written, believing them to represent the Five Wounds of Christ. Unusual as the decision is, it does work.

Aside from the religious interpretation, Isserlis’s tone and tempo feel absolutely right. The fact that these are dances is never forgotten, and there are none of the self-indulgent rubatos that characterise some recordings. Dances such as the Menuet from Suite No. 2 are light and flowing, with energy and drive. However, they always retain a courtly feel rather than tipping over into country-dance bounciness, as can so often happen. For the sixth suite, in the interests of sonority, Isserlis has opted to play his four-string cello rather than the five-stringed model the suite may have been originally written for. Despite the extra position work this decision meant, the technical pressure is never heard, leaving the listener free to be caught up in the emotional, joyful music.

This recording can sit proudly on the shelf alongside the great recordings of Casals and Rostropovich. In fact, I may find myself picking it up as the favourite.

This recording is Disc Of The Week on Radio 3's CD Review .

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'A worthy successor to Casals in every way. He creates the satisfying sense of a musical journey through the Suites … Isserlis's interpretation treads the path between profound intellectual understanding and a sense of spontaeous expression, both qualities that the music requires … This is an outstanding recording of some of the greatest works of classical music and a disc that every music-lover should own' (Classic FM Magazine)

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