COMPOSERS: Bach
LABELS: Naxos
ALBUM TITLE: Bach - Solo Cello Suites
WORKS: Cello Suites
PERFORMER: Maria Kliegel
CATALOGUE NO: 8.557280-81
With 60-odd performances of this
cellists’ rite of passage currently
available, each newcomer has to make
a mark in some striking way. Maria
Kliegel chooses a wayward passion
that does little to reflect either the
structures of the six Preludes, or
the style of Baroque dances in the
subsequent movements. She is a
fine technician, her intonation near
The authentic touch
william whitehead welcomes Gillian Weir’s latest disc
of Bach, recorded on the organ in the composer’s own church
gillian weir continues her acclaimed Bach organ series; helene grimaud finds a natural
pairing in Chopin and Rachmaninov; young pianist denis matsuev pays tribute to Horowitz impeccable even when using a fourstring
cello for the Sixth Suite, for
which Bach intended an extra top
string. So it is her artistic conviction
rather than any technical limitations
that lead her to constantly arrest the
rhythmic flow.
The dances are not functional
– no one danced to them. But many
a French dancing-master made
his living teaching German high
society the latest Parisian fashions.
Bach counted several among his
personal friends. For him, a key
characteristic of a French dance
remained its rhythmic character.
Only the outdated allemande was
open to more options in tempo and
flexibility, and Kliegel makes good
sense of the complex and highly
decorated sixth Allemande. The other
dances are irrationally unsteady. The
first Courante stops dead in midflow;
hardly two succeeding beats of
the third Sarabande are of the same
length; the fourth Bourrée loses its wit
and humour with unwanted pauses
for thought; the final Gigue becomes
a weird Witches Sabbath of 7/8 bars
as multiple-stopped chords delay the
pulse. A pizzicato repeat to the fifth
Sarabande only confirms Kliegel’s
determination to be different.
Jaap Ter Linden on Harmonia
Mundi remains the most convincing
period-instrument performer while,
for comparison with Kliegel on her
well-recorded modern cello, Antonio
Meneses’s recent Avie issue remains
my benchmark. George Pratt