CD Review
J.S. Bach: The Cello Suites, Steven Isserlis, cello
- Composer
- J.S. Bach
- Artist
- Steven Isserlis, cello
- Label
- Hyperion
- Catalogue
- CDA67541/2
- Reviewed by
- Ruth Squire
Steven Isserlis’s recording of the Bach Cello Suites is a significant addition to the catalogue. This new release can be seen as a musical and academic study of the suites. Isserlis provides detailed, informative and interesting sleeve-notes, giving us a brief background to the history and origins of the manuscripts, a summary of the suites and also a personal note discussing his own thoughts surrounding the works. He provides three different interpretations of the Prelude from Suite No. 1, with a short discussion of these interpretations in the booklet.
In his personal thoughts, Isserlis states that “there is certainly no need for any extra-musical input. The suites are perfect in themselves”. Accordingly, he gives us an interpretation free from fuss. Whilst his recordings are slightly faster than what we are perhaps used to, there is no sense of hurry in these performances. On the contrary, the suites come across as contemplative, considered and personal.
A genuinely distinguished set, well worth seeking out.
About the performer
Steven Isserlis is a British cellist known for combining a modern-instrument technique with close attention to period performance practice, an approach directly reflected in the sleeve-note interpretive discussion described above. He studied with Jane Cowan and William Pleeth, has taught at the Royal College of Music, and co-founded the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, a chamber-music course that has shaped several generations of British string players. His Bach recordings for Hyperion and RCA sit alongside a wide-ranging discography spanning the core cello repertoire and new commissions from living composers.
About the suites
Bach wrote the six Cello Suites during his years as Capellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen in the early eighteenth century, but they spent most of the following two centuries as a marginal, little-performed part of the repertoire, closer to technical study material than concert works. That changed almost entirely because of one cellist: Pablo Casals found an edition of the suites in a Barcelona shop in 1890, aged thirteen, and reportedly spent over a decade studying them privately before performing any of them in public. His recordings, made at Abbey Road Studios between 1936 and 1939, are widely credited with establishing the suites as the central pillar of the solo cello repertoire they’ve been ever since, the same body of work every subsequent recording, Isserlis’s included, is inevitably measured against.
A note on this page
Originally published by Ruth Squire, recovered from mmmusic's own archive and reproduced here as the critic wrote it.
Questions about this recording
What makes this recording distinctive?
Steven Isserlis provides detailed sleeve-notes covering the history of the manuscripts and his own interpretive approach, including three different readings of the Prelude from Suite No. 1 discussed directly in the booklet.
Are the tempos unusual?
Isserlis's tempos are slightly faster than many listeners are used to, but the review notes no sense of hurry, the performances come across as contemplative and considered rather than rushed.
How many discs does this set span?
Two CDs (catalogue CDA67541/2), covering all six Bach Cello Suites.
Is this recording still available to buy?
Yes, Hyperion's catalogue number CDA67541/2 remains findable through classical retailers. We don't run an in-house shop, so we link out to Amazon and Discogs below.
