As Wilbert Hazelzet points out in his booklet note, Bach's chamber works for flute do not survive in convenient sets of six 'as we all would have liked'. We can hardly blame him, then, for jealously eyeing the six solo cello suites, especially when there is already in existence such a fine tempter into unaccompanied Bach territory as the A minor Partita for solo flute. Of course, the flute has neither the range of the cello nor its aching, lyrical melancholy, but it can offer that special brand of soulfulness that comes from producing music with one's very breath.
Hazelzet is a player from whom breath seems to ease with an almost Zen-like stillness and poise, and there are things in these insightful performances of his own arrangements of the first three suites that you would never expect to hear from a cello. The normally rustic-sounding drone passage in the Third Suite's Gigue is here transformed into a moment of touching sweetness, while some of the movement endings are exquisitely controlled (the delicious long diminuendo on the final note of the Allemande of the Partita is unforgettable). The flute also allows considerably greater clarity of texture and sharpness of attack, to which virtues Hazelzet adds to each and every movement an unemphatic but physically irresistible sense of the dance.
Occasionally the instrument comes under strain (for example at the climax of the First Suite Prelude), and it is possible that some listeners may be irritated by Hazelzet's many necessary pauses for breath, though they are built into the line most tastefully. There are also some transcribing surprises, perhaps the most startling being the upward-octave transposition of the bottom note of the Third Suite Prelude's opening flourish. The spread chords, however, survive. With endless accounts of the original versions of these suites to get to know (and a fair few transcriptions for other instruments, too), it would be all too easy to view this one as just the product of another player's indulgent curiosity. The truth is that, in its own right, it is music-making of the highest musical intelligence and artistry.'