Mischa Maisky tells us that he realised he needed to re-record the Bach Cello Suites when he failed to recognise his own 1985 performance of the C major Bourree on hearing it in a hi-fi shop. Sure enough, a dive straight for that movement in both recordings reveals the main way in which his ideas have changed. Whereas the earlier account is relatively straightforward in its even tempos and inclination to see the music in terms of a single long line, the new one (made last autumn) is much freer, pulling the tempo around (most are faster to start with) and searching consistently for a conversational dynamic in the music. Maisky tells us he's taken a romantic approach, and in his generous vibrato, grand climaxes and long-drawn crescendos (notably in the Sarabandes) you can see what he means. But there's a sense, too, in which these performances can be said to be just as truly baroque in their awareness of the rhetorical quality in the music, resulting in a wider range of articulation and internal contrasts, and in many more marked interpretative details.
Some characteristics remain unchanged, including a tendency in the paired movements to retreat in the second into a dreamy sotto voce (nice), and a less than convincing way with ornaments (not so nice). Best of all, though, and despite the slightly greater warmth of the earlier recording, the playing still radiates an exquisitely beautiful tone - resonant and creamy without being too lush - and the intonation is marginally better, which is another way of saying that it is perfect. Like so many cellists, Maisky seems understandably fascinated with these pieces; 14 years on from his first recording he quite simply has more to say about them, and has managed to convert the wisdom of experience into free-flowing, almost improvisatory readings which offer the listener plenty to enjoy.
An extra feature, by the way, is a CD-ROM offering background information and, fascinatingly, Maisky's own marked-up edition of the score which you can not only follow as you listen, but also modify to your own taste, print out and play back - albeit in the latter case in disappointingly lifeless electronic tones.'