Rating: 4/5
Review:
An interesting project
It's a fascinating idea to record these wonderful works on a
violoncello da spalla (an instrument I hadn't even heard of!) and Sigiswald
Kuijken is a superb musician; the result is genuinely interesting and
rewarding, although I have my reservations about it as a set of these Suites to
listen to repeatedly.
The music is quite magnificent, of course. It has been successfully played on a variety
of instruments including viola, double bass and viola da gamba by truly great
musicians but I have never found these interpretations quite match up to the
great cello recordings – and that's how I feel about this. It is really good in many ways: Kuijken
understands the music very well and allows the lines to flow while keeping
Bach's essential pulse; his intonation is excellent and the overall sound is
quite pleasing. However, there is a
slight plodding feeling some of the time - in the Prelude of the Third Suite,
for example, I don’t get the real emotion from those fabulous wide arpeggios –
and the instrument lacks the cello's real depth of resonance which robs the
music of some of its impact.
