Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. I. Prelude
2. II. Allemande
3. III. Courante
4. IV. Sarabande
5. V. Menuet I
6. VI. Menuet II
7. VII. Gigue
8. I. Praeludium
9. II. Allemande
10. III. Courante
11. IV. Sarabande
12. V. Bourree I
13. VI. Bourree II
14. VII. Gigue
15. I. Prelude
16. II. Allemande
17. III. Courante
18. IV. Sarabande
19. V. Gavotte I
20. VI. Gavotte II
21. VII. Gigue

Disc 2:

1. I. Prelude
2. II. Allemande
3. III. Courante
4. IV. Sarabande
5. V. Menuet I
6. VI. Menuet II
7. VII. Gigue
8. I. Prelude
9. II. Allemande
10. III. Courante
11. IV. Sarabande
12. V. Bourree I
13. VI. Bourree II
14. VII. Gigue
15. I. Prelude
16. II. Allemande
17. III. Courante
18. IV. Sarabande
19. V. Gavotte I
20. VI. Gavotte II
21. VII. Gigue

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5574 in Music
• Released on: 2004-08-02
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Unsurpassed Masterclass in Technique
As an ex professional 'cellist myself I'm more than familiar with these suites by Bach. Their content is detailed in other reviews - here I wish to comment just on Tortelier's interpretation.

One of the greatest things about the suites is that they are so flexible to player's interpretation and Tortelier makes this abundantly clear with the opening bars of the prelude to the first suite. His technique is astounding, precise, lyrical and beautiful. The music literally dances in novel and previously unimagined ways that blows me away every time I hear it.

Yo Yo Ma's extremely accomplished suites are lush and beautiful but sound flat, dull and unimaginative by comparison. Rostropovich's suites sound ham fisted, bullying the music out of the instrument without the dexterity or refinement of Tortelier. Even the god-like Casals would have to admit that Tortelier's account of this incredible music puts more depth into every note than even he could manage.

Buy this record. Buy it for anyone that has ever known the suites and especially buy it for anyone that already owns a copy by another 'cellist. Any 'cellist. If he recorded no other record in his lifetime this recording alone would mark him out as a genius. If each piece is a song then Tortelier turns them into Operas.

Don't take my word for it. Listen for yourself. I swear that afterwards you'll be compelled to write something similar here!

PROFOUNDLY HUMAN(IST) PERFORMANCES
It's surprising how very different interpretations of these amazing solo works can each convince you that, yes, that's the way they should go. Certainly, with Bach's Cello Suites as with Shakespeare's Cleopatra, custom cannot stale their infinite variety. Casals, their rediscoverer, brought his inimitable mix of style and passion to them. Rostropovich seemed to chisel them out of the rock like some marmoreal Michelangelo statue. For some cellists, they are towering and grandiloquent. For others, they are intimate and personal. Some emphasise the joy of the dance movements, others the intensity of the sarabandes, others still apply the strictest theories of authentic period performance to them.

Anyone of a certain age will recall the passionate commitment to these Suites shown by a highly charismatic Tortelier in his TV masterclasses of 50 years or so ago. That same commitment shines through these performances from the 70's. These are readings where you can take technique for granted. What's more important, Tortelier allows the infinite variety of the Suites themselves and each of the movements within them to speak their own language. There's charm, wit, humour, beauty, emotion, spirituality as it's called for. Tortelier understands that these are dance suites, but that they also encapsulate great profundity in their notes. If I had to sum up his interpretations in one word, it would be their `humanity'. And that seems particularly right for the secular works Bach wrote with such obvious pleasure while he was at the court of the young Prince Leopold in Cothen. Away from the world of church services, Bach produced works that were just as profound in a different, I'm tempted to say more human, certainly more humanist way. That is something that seems particularly close to Tortelier's heart and thinking. And it comes out wonderfully in these performances.

Poetic and inspirational
Torterlier was a friend of Pablo Casals, and was invited to be principal cellist at the first Prades Festival, which commemorated the 200th anniversary of Bach's death. He admired Casals very much and imitated some of his technique. He said of Casals, "...he was probably the first cellist to use his left hand in the manner of a pianist--that is, by normally placing only one finger on the string at a time, rather than keeping all the fingers clamped down. This allowed the fingers to vibrate freely." (From The Strad, April '84) Ginsberg wrote, "Creative fantasy and a youthful abandon are inherent in his performing style."

Tortelier was so moved by the Israeli effort to establish a homeland that he moved to Israel to assist in the effort. He was forty years old then, at the height of his cellist powers. He and his wive and their two children lived in Mabaroth, a Kibbutz, just a few hundred yards from the enemy border.

From 1956 to 1969 he was a professor at the Paris Conservatoire, and at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, from 1969 to 1975. Shortly thereafter he became the first Westerner to be an honorary Professor of Music at the Central Conservatoire in Beijing, China. He was a Frenchman, but advised his students to avoid French music. Not that he disliked it, but he realized that the public wanted to hear Beethoven and Mozart. He taught his students to be international in their musical tastes and performances. As is the case with Rostropovich, Tortelier gradually began to do more conducting as he grew older.

He had an outgoing, lively personality, and taught master classes on British television. The classes were quite popular, even with people who knew little about the cello or classical music. Tortelier has a reputation for being a great story-teller, and a wide knowledge of art and literature, as well as music. He not only is an excellent performer, but also a composer of many cello works. His Sonata Breve (Bucephale), and Alla Maud are particularly well-known, as are his two cello concertos.

His edition of the Bach Suites came out in 1966. He said, with regard to the Suites, "To breathe life into music is more important than to prove respect for it." In 1971 he published his cello method, How I Play, How I Teach, which is particularly useful in training pupils to play modern music. He was founder and president of the "Mouvement Beethoven Association," begun on the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, and designed to support progressively-minded composers.

I yearn to deeply comprehend the Bach Cello Suites. Whether Pablo Casals, Paul Tortelier, Rostropovich, or whoever your favorite cellist may be, they all rightfully speak of the Suites with an effusive reverence. They all refer to the "infinity" of Bach, the "oceanic depths" of Bach, or the "cathedral" of Bach.

Though inspiring and poetic words, as a student of the Suites, I want to know more. But on listening over and over to Tortelier, I fancy that I begin to comprehend.