JS BACH Solo Cello Suites, BWV1007-12

Another viola player appropriates the Cello Suites with much succes

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Regent

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 152

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: REGCD307

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude (Fantasia) and Fugue in G minor, BWV542 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV544 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV548 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Preludes and Fugues, Movement: Prelude and Fugue in G, BWV550 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
(6) Trio Sonatas, Movement: No. 1 in E flat, BWV525 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
(6) Trio Sonatas, Movement: No. 6 in G, BWV530 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Chorale Preludes, Movement: Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV718 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Chorale Preludes, Movement: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV720 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Chorale Preludes, Movement: Herzlich tut mich verlangen, BWV727 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Chorale Preludes, Movement: Fantasia super Valet will ich dir geben, BWV735 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Chorale Preludes, Movement: Valet will ich dir geben, BWV736 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Chorale Preludes, Movement: Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, BWV740 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
(6) Concertos, Movement: No. 4 in C, BWV595 (after Johann Ernst) Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
(6) Concertos, Movement: No. 5 in D minor, BWV596 (after Vivaldi, Op. 3/11) Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Chorale Preludes, Movement: Auf meinen lieben Gott, BWV744 (? by Krebs) Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Chorale Preludes, Movement: Christus, der uns selig macht, BWV747 (spurious) Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Choral Preludes from the Kirnberger Collection, Movement: Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV690 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Choral Preludes from the Kirnberger Collection, Movement: Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten, BWV691 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Choral Preludes from the Kirnberger Collection, Movement: Wo soll ich fliehen hin, BWV694 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Choral Preludes from the Kirnberger Collection, Movement: Christ lag in Todesbanden, BWV695 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Choral Preludes from the Kirnberger Collection, Movement: In dich hab' ich gehoffet, BWV712 Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Trio Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Fugue on a theme by Legrenzi Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Fugue, 'Jig Fugue' Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Toccata (and Fugue) Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Margaret Phillips, Organ
Bach’s Cello Suites are much favoured by viola da gambists, double-bassists, bassoonists, lutenists and guitar players as well as viola players. Lillian Fuchs was the first to revive interest in performing them on the viola shortly after the Second World War; her recording from the early 1950s offers powerful advocacy for doing so. Sixty years on, it still has much to offer.

More recently, viola players have taken a lively interest in the lesser-known instruments falling between the viola and cello, including the violoncello da spalla, played violin-wise. The Belgian period string player Sigiswald Kuijken had a “shoulder-cello” specially built to perform the Suites at pitch (Fuchs and other viola players have performed them an octave higher than notated). Kuijken’s sound may not please every ear but his eloquence and good taste offer valuable insights to viola players and cellists alike.

Helen Callus is a modern player whose approach to the Suites has been influenced, though not dominated, by period performance practices. Callus nevertheless draws heavily on the performance tradition established by Fuchs, more so than other contemporary modern players, including Tabea Zimmermann, who has so far only recorded the first two.

In this two-disc set Callus gives a richly impassioned reading. She’s at her best in the rhetorical Preludes and spirited Gigues, though some of the inner dances suffer from identity-crisis: in her businesslike versions of the Courantes one longs to hear more of the exquisite tension between melody, rhythm and harmony Bach so cleverly constructed; the graceful Sarabandes are bedevilled by slow tempi and a lack of forward motion, which obscures the underlying importance of the second beats. Reservations aside, her performance of the Sixth Suite, in G rather than D major, ranks among the highlights of the set.

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