Bach Cello Suites

Guy should stop mincing words and say how he really feels!

A wonderfully enjoyable review. The Starker is indeed superb.

I’m kinda surprised there seems to be so much more adoration for the cello suites (not that they aren’t magnificent) than for the solo violin sonatas and partitas which, IMO, are even better.

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They are also excellent. I like Monica Huggett and Rachel Podger, but find Gil Shaham the best. A new thread perhaps?

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I find them intense listening. Try Ibragimova on Hyperion. Where do you stop with Bach? The flute sonatas, keyboard sonatas,…

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There is no stopping with Bach. To me he is the summit of everything great about music.

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Fully agreed.

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Bach is a colossus of Rhodes, beneath whom all musicians pass and will continue to pass. Mozart is the most beautiful, Rossini the most brilliant, but Bach is the most comprehensive; he has said all there is to say. If all the music written since Bach’s time should be lost it could be reconstructed on the foundation which Bach laid.
-Charles Gounod

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That’s why I’ll soon also buy the Starker 45 RPM set :wink:

You don’t even need to compare…when you hear his interpretation first time, you know this is it.

Recently took delivery of the long awaited Analog Production version of Janos Starker’s Living Presence recording on 12 LPs at 45 rpm. It is vastly superior to the Dual Disc CD. I do not have the previous release on 33rpm to compare but the sound is fantastic with great tone and dynamics. Very little background noise and a joy to listen to. Without digital nasties the music really comes out and the greatness of this performer is there to be listened to. The interpretation is still a little too aggressive and bold in places for my tastes but that in no way diminishes the achievement of this release.

I also await the 45RPM soon!

I already have the Speakers Corner 33RPM vinyl and it smokes the SACD by a truckload. I don’t mean the SACD/vinyl thing in this case, its the SACD‘s mastering that’s so much inferior. No rarity.

Dear Jazznut, I’m sure you will not be disappointed, Charles.

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For those of you who read music, if you have not already done so, I suggest buying the music and following along. The performers take tremendous liberties with what is on the page. It is fun to compare what the performers decide to do.

In many places Starker can sound aggressive (these are dance suites) but without any tempo markings, it’s left to each performer to choose the suitable pulse for their interpretation. How well they integrate those choices is the key. Starker is one of several that offer a rich artistic vision of these emotionally intense pieces. The Starker Mercury Living Presence SACD set rests beside those of Ma, Rostropovich, Tortelier & Pierre Fournier, my preferred recording (It was Fournier’s interpretation that inspired Ingmar Bergman’s haunting, wordless scene in Cries & Whispers). Bach is surely too deep for any one vision.

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Thank you for this. They are wonderful on my Stellar.

Got it now! Will hopefully listen and compare this evening…

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Dear Jazznut it can be part of your indoor fitness regime! Charles.

Although he is not as well known as I believe he should be, Zuill Bailey is a very accomplished contemporary performer and I find his set of the cello suites to be revelatory; well worth listening to but unfortunately only available on conventional CD.
Larry

One should always go with the first impression, right? I tell you mine after playing 3 tracks from comparing the Starker 33 RPM Speakers corner release mastered by William Makee at Emil. Berliner Studios with the new 45 RPM mastered by Ryan K Smith at Sterling sound.

While the 45 RPM has clearly quieter vinyl surface and a more unspectacular, slightly leaner, possibly more neutral tonality and also an edge in transient attack, the 33 RPM has a more silky string tone, a more palpable, holographic instrument, appearing a bit more as a hole in the room (vs. slightly scattered sounds around the soundstage from the 45 RPM).

I don’t know how it really is, but the 33 RPM sounds as mastered with tube equipment and the 45 RPM as done on solid state equipment.

I’m sure I will find a few more advantages of the 45 RPM when I listen more intense, but this was my first impression.

It’s very interesting to have both, if you have to choose one, I’d rather go for the Speakers Corner.

If you want to make an unfair demo (different masterings) of vinyl vs. SACD sound, do it with this recording. Both vinyl releases completely outclass the SACD release from 2004 (DSD transfer also done at Emil Berliner Studios) in a way that my half deaf mother would recognize.

I didn’t expect this difference of the two vinyl releases, but both sound absolutely gorgeous.

Larry, I agree entirely with your recommendation. He appears to be an improbable combination of Janos Starker and Steven Isserlis! By that I mean he plays Preludes and Gigues with the boldness and assertiveness of Starker but Sarabandes with the delicacy and sensuous tone of Isserlis. His sixth suite Allemande is possibly the best I have heard keeping the attention through all 10minutes of it and throughout, he reveals the contrapuntal nature and implied polyphony of the Suites like no one else.

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