Bach - Cello Suites - Queyras

Rating: 5/5

Review:
An excellent, distinctive interpretation

I like this interpretation of the Cello Suites very much. Jean-Guihen Queyras is a fine cellist and he brings something both fresh and thoughtful to this marvellous music.

Queyras has a distinctive approach which I found quite a surprise in many ways. His tempi are often quite brisk and he has a very decisive approach to phrasing which shapes the lines somewhat differently from some of the great interpretations I am used to - and I think it works very well. He has a superb technique which he uses to allow him almost to skip and glide over the notes in places, so those wonderful wide arpeggios in the prelude of the Third Suite really sway and dance, for example. He never trivialises, though, so the Sarabandes have real depth and gravitas in every Suite while never becoming stodgy, and for me his approach sheds new light in lots of places.

I found this set a revelation in many ways. The vigour of many of the movements is a joy, without any sense of rush or strain and there is a genuine depth of understanding and scholarship throughout, I think. The recorded sound is superb and Queyras's cello sounds wonderful in a lovely, resonant acoustic. I have a lot of versions of the Cello Suites (I used to be a very bad teenage cellist) and this will be played just as often as my dearly loved sets by Isserlis, Fournier, Ma and others. It's a lovely interpretation and very warmly recommended.