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The Road More TraveledPosted on November 6, 2014

The great poet Robert Frost suggested that choosing the road less traveled can make allthe difference. For some, that is just not an option. Take the life of a professional cellosoloist. There just isn’t the same large body of repertoire for the cello that there is for, say,a violin or piano. As a cellist, one cannot help but plow fields that have been well tilled bymany great players of the past (and present, for that matter). A cellist cannot help buttake a road more traveled.

Some of my favorite pieces of music for the celloare the Six suites for unaccompanied cello byJohann Sebastian Bach. Pablo Casals was thefirst to record the complete set of six suites, andevery cellist of any renown has followed hisexample. Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, PaulTortelier, and any other name you can mentionhas offered up a performance. One of theinteresting things about these pieces is that we donot have the original manuscript to refer to, like aviolinist has for the Bach Solo Partitas. All wehave are copies made in the hand of otherindividuals, including Anna Magdalena Bach,Johann’s second wife. These copies do not all

agree on articulations and slurs, leaving us without a prime “urtext” manuscript of Bach’sdirections. There is no single agreed upon version of the articulations, which leaves eachgreat cellist room to make some of their own choices.

Each of the six suites are divided into six movements, and are almost identical in thestructure of those parts. The first movement of each is a Prelude, with parts 2-4 and 6being an Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue in each suite. The only variation is inthe fifth movements of each suite, where Bach has given us a Minuet, Borreee or Gavottein this place. After the opening prelude, these are all Baroque dance forms, i.e. specificrhythmic formulas used in dances from Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Spain. Now, Iam not the person to look to for help in learning any of these dances, sober or otherwise.For our purpose, it is enough to know that Bach had to work within the prescribed patternof each dance he was composing. What wonderful music he produced.

My newest and currently favorite recording ofthe Six Suites is by the Russian-American

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cellist, Nina Kotova. This was released just ashort time ago, in September, and has reallygrown on me since I started listening to it. Onthe surface, it is very well recorded from asound engineering perspective. It is a real treat,because Kotova plays on a 1673 du PréStradivarius cello that makes some of the mostgorgeous sound ever heard by human ears. A Stradivarius-made instrument is one ofthose rare things in life that lives up to all the hype, especially in an expert’s hands. In thisrecording, as with everything else I have heard by Ms. Kotova, she shows why she is morethan worthy of playing this instrument.

My favorite of the six suites in this recordingis the last, in D Major, with its energetic andjoyful tone. It is possible that Bachconceived this sixth suite for a now-obsoletebaroque variation of a cello that had fivestrings, not four. Nina Kotova shows all thevirtuosity required to perform the extendedrange of the D Major suite on the modernfour string cello. All of the cello suites aretechnically challenging, but the sixthcontains virtuosic passages and parts thatseem like cadenzas, more than any of thepreceding five suites. Ms. Kotova shows offaccomplished technique and great musicality

in this recording.

You can tell which pieces of classical music are my all time favorites by how many differentrecordings are on my CD shelf. Nina Kotova has given me my fourth different performanceof the Bach Cello Suites, and it is a worthy comrade to the other three. Kotova, like herStradivarius cello, lives up to the hype as “a fantastically gifted cellist” (Newsweek) and “amusician of high seriousness and real talent”(Time). Check it out for yourself on Spotify

Nina Kotova, J.S Bach: The Cello Suites

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This entry was posted in Classical Music, Piano and Chamber Music and tagged Bach, Bach Cello Suites, Baroque,Cello, Classical Music, Music, Nina Kotova, Robert Frost. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to The Road More Traveled

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anisioluiz2008 says:November 6, 2014 at 2:18 pm

Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.

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Diane Lindsay says:November 7, 2014 at 4:52 pm

He posts once or twice a week and I find his information interesting. He will alsolink you to recordings. You might be interested in this as well. He does mostlyclassical but will also foray into other genres.

Diane

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B* says:November 14, 2014 at 1:03 am

Beautifully written post that delectably combines both knowledge and heart♥Thank you for dropping by my site with your warmth and do take care, too

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