JS BACH Six Solo Cello Suites (Jiří Bárta)
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Supraphon
Magazine Review Date: 03/2019
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 143
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ANI076-2
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(6) Suites (Sonatas) for Cello |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Jirí Bárta, Cello Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
Author: Rob Cowan
Toing and froing between the two Bárta sets reveals, quite aside from the differences inherent between a Baroque cello (Animal Music) and a more modern instrument (Supraphon), a darkening of texture on this newer version and a reining-in of expressive variety. These and other differences pose the question: is the adoption of ‘period’ manners always a good thing? Years ago the same question occurred to me when I compared the ‘old’ Viktoria Mullova with her more recent (ie ‘historically informed’) self in the First Solo Violin Partita. Babies and bathwater spring to mind, though there are cases where a stylistic switch can reveal stimulating revelations on both sides of the fence, cellist Julius Berger on Orfeo and Wergo being a fair case in point.
By chance I’d just been listening to Daniil Shafran’s newly reissued Melodiya set of the Suites, vibrant and audacious almost to a fault, so Bárta’s gentler quirks rather paled by comparison. Given a choice, I’d stay with his earlier Supraphon recording but this period-instrument ‘new look’ is a quality act, if not quite on a par with Anner Bylsma (Sony Classical, 1/93), Yo-Yo Ma’s latest version (Sony Classical, A/18), the best of Steven Isserlis (Hyperion, 7/07) or the ever-inventive Wispelwey’s third recording (Evil Penguin, 12/12). The recordings here are good, though what sounds like the percussive knocking of fingers on the neck of the instrument is fairly prominent.
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