Best Version of Bach Cello Suites?

[sphinxsix]

I have about a dozen versions (all of them have already been mentioned) but I'd be very hesitant to recommend any of them in this particular place, since none of them is in Dolby Atmos.. 😉

[sphinxsix]

10 hours ago, Jud said:

I always go for feeling over pure technical prowess.

  

They don't exclude each other after all, IMO one of the best example is many times Maisky's music partner, Martha Argerich who while being a fantastic technician has given us so many highly emotionally charged performances.

 

5 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

I could be wrong, but his interpretation must be overly romantic, more Tchaikovsky than Bach.

That's also how I remember a quick listen to his versions.

 

5 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

Both Wispelwey or Bylsma, for example, recorded the cycle several times. 

There are also two recordings by Maisky, AFAI remember they are quite similar, the second one, I think was a bit faster.

 

4 hours ago, MarcelNL said:

I too find Maisky too smooth to rate his rendition in my top three

Same here, he didn't even make it to my top dozen.

OTOH I'd also highly recommend this recording (I'm even bigger fan of Podger after seeing her live recently, she's my favorite baroque violinist):

 

58 minutes ago, Dandou said:

I recommend listening to the 2019 violin transcription of the Suites by Rachel Podger. For me, it was a fresh, and very enjoyable rediscovery of the Suites. And the sound is great. 

 

 

 

 

10 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Listening now. 
 

 

👍 Also IMO - a very good performance!

 

[sphinxsix]

5 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

This is something I definitely find kinky, Cello Suites on violin.

I OTOH don't. Love eg Barshai's Goldberg Variations on organ or the version by Trio Zimmermann. I'm quite far from purism here - if the final effect makes musical sense and touches me emotionally or in any other way - it's ok for me. Beside that Bach himself and many after him used to make transcriptions of his pieces for different instruments. Do you listen to eg GV only played on harpsichord for which it was mainly composed.? 

(I'm obviously aware that early pianos appeared during Bach's lifetime, around 1700 in Italy)

[sphinxsix]

3 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

If there are 50 or 100 pretty fine renditions of Cello Suites performed on the cello, what should encourage interest in arrangements for other instruments?

Maybe the very fact that there are 50 or 100 cello versions..

 

Frankly gentlemen, I'm talking to myself - AFAIK Another Spin is the only person here who has me on ignore (due to our deep disagreement on train music, long ago)..

 

Now I will allow myself perform some real magic and make him speak to himself..

 

5 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

The world is imperfect and will never conform to my ideal view of what it should be. And since it is so, so be it. And I have no difficulty at all in accepting and leaving behind something that already exists independently of me and in no way depends on me. Everything is fine.

 

2 hours ago, AnotherSpin said:

I recently saw a poster for a performance of the Goldberg Variations in a transcription for piano and drums. I guess I still haven't come to my senses thereafter.

...

 

2 hours ago, bodiebill said:

I presume that not many here subscribe to the claim that the cello suites were actually composed by Anna Magdalena Bach?

 

Let me quote a great cellist, Steven Isserlis:

"Anna Magdalena Bach did not write the Bach suites, any more than Anne Hathaway wrote Shakespeare’s plays, George Henry Lewes wrote George Eliot’s novels, or Freddie Starr ate his friend’s hamster.

Anna Magdalena copied out the Bach suites, in an error-ridden but invaluable manuscript, which may or may not be the earliest surviving source for the suites (Bach’s own copy, or copies, having been lost). The title page states clearly, in Anna Magdalena’s hand: 6 suites a Violoncello Solo senza basso composees par S(igno)r JS Bach.

The main “evidence” for the theory seems to be the testimony of a handwriting expert, who has decided that Anna Magdalena’s copy shows that “the speed of the writing and the spacing between pen lifts were suggestive of composing rather than copying”. Why? Certainly to my eyes – and incidentally to those of the two musicians I know, neither of whom believe the theory in any way – it is clearly a copy. There are no alterations or second thoughts, as there would be in a working manuscript."

 

Amen (at least I hope so).

 

[sphinxsix]

6 hours ago, Dandou said:

 

Bach, himself, transcribed the fifth suite for lute. 

 

 

Why did no-one tell him he was not allowed to do that.?! 😎

 

Anyway, I think @The Computer Audiophile is a great classical music thread starter, I don't know if you'll agree with me guys..

 

[sphinxsix]

BTW I still think Beethoven's 9th with rappers (4th part!) could be done in an interesting way, I'm pretty sure Beethoven himself would have thought about this if he had lived a little longer.. 

Yo!

😉