Bach - The Cello Suites - Hyperion: CDA67541-2 - 2 CDs or download

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A completely new and inspiring benchmark for this unique tour de force — BBC Music Magazine, 1st June 2007 More…

Release Date: 30th Apr 2007
Catalogue No: CDA67541-2
Label: Hyperion
Length: 2 hours 16 minutes

BBC Music Magazine Awards

2008

Instrumental Finalist
BBC Music Magazine

June 2007

Disc of the month
Record Review

December 2007

Critics Disc of the Year
Record Review

December 2007

Listeners' Disc of the Year
Gramophone Magazine

July 2007

Editor's Choice
Gramophone Awards

2007

Winner - Instrumental

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Bach, J S: Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV1007

Work length16:12

$6.60

$9.00

$9.30

Steven Isserlis (cello)

I. Prelude

Track length2:27

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

II. Allemande

Track length3:23

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

III. Courante

Track length2:30

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

IV. Sarabande

Track length2:46

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

V. Menuet I – Menuet II

Track length3:19

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

VI. Gigue

Track length1:47

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

Bach, J S: Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV1008

Work length17:29

$6.60

$9.00

$9.30

Steven Isserlis (cello)

I. Prelude

Track length3:43

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

II. Allemande

Track length2:33

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

III. Courante

Track length2:01

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

IV. Sarabande

Track length3:55

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

V. Menuet I – Menuet II

Track length2:45

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

VI. Gigue

Track length2:32

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

Bach, J S: Cello Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV1009

Work length19:44

$6.60

$9.00

$9.30

Steven Isserlis (cello)

I. Prelude

Track length3:24

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

II. Allemande

Track length3:19

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

III. Courante

Track length2:44

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

IV. Sarabande

Track length3:53

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

V. Bourrée I – Bourrée II

Track length3:17

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

VI. Gigue

Track length3:07

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

Bach, J S: Cello Suite No. 4 in E flat major, BWV1010

Work length21:30

$6.60

$9.00

$9.30

Steven Isserlis (cello)

I. Prelude

Track length3:31

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

II. Allemande

Track length3:27

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

III. Courante

Track length3:22

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

IV. Sarabande

Track length3:56

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

V. Bourrée I – Bourrée II

Track length4:43

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

VI. Gigue

Track length2:31

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

Bach, J S: Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV1011

Work length24:08

$6.60

$9.00

$9.30

Steven Isserlis (cello)

I. Prelude

Track length5:56

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

II. Allemande

Track length5:30

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

III. Courante

Track length1:59

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

IV. Sarabande

Track length3:33

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

V. Gavotte I – Gavotte II

Track length4:27

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

VI. Gigue

Track length2:43

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

Bach, J S: Cello Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV1012

Work length27:27

$6.60

$9.00

$10.05

Steven Isserlis (cello)

I. Prelude

Track length4:33

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

II. Allemande

Track length7:37

$1.10

$1.50

$2.30

III. Courante

Track length3:26

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

IV. Sarabande

Track length4:35

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

V. Gavotte I – Gavotte II

Track length3:09

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

VI. Gigue

Track length4:07

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

anon.: The Song of the Birds

Work length2:52

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

Steven Isserlis (cello)

Excerpt, Bach, J S: Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV1007

Work length7:18

$3.30

$4.50

$4.65

Steven Isserlis (cello)

I. Prelude, from the Anna Magdalena manuscript

Track length2:26

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

I. Prelude, from the Johann Peter Kellner manuscript

Track length2:25

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

I. Prelude, from the collection of Johann Christoph Westphal

Track length2:27

$1.10

$1.50

$1.55

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About

Hyperions record of the month for May is a major milestone for a performer at the zenith of his careerdescribed recently in The Independent as the stuff of legend. Steven Isserliss award-winning discography spans his diverse interests in repertoire and his musicological enthusiasm, as well as demonstrating his supreme artistry and uniquely beautiful sound, and his first recording of the complete Bach cello suites is an indelibly important addition to the set. Steven writes that the Bach suites are works of such total perfection, such sublimity, that it is well-nigh impossible to feel ready for them. He has proved more than adequate to the task and this release is a triumphant conclusion to an artistic pilgrimage. Stevens eloquent booklet notes reveal his personal thoughts about the suites, as well as extensive academic research. His is an interpretation that has come from his passionate involvement in the music rather than from following the various theories that abound in Bach scholarship, and he discusses it fully in an article which is a perfect complement to this wonderful release.

Also includes "The Song of the Birds" arranged by Sally Beamish and different versions of the Prelude to the first suite from the manuscripts of Anna Magdalena, Johann Peter Kellner and the collection of Johann Christoph Westphal.

Reviews

1st June 2007

A completely new and inspiring benchmark for this unique tour de force

22nd May 2007

Isserlis has done the impossible. He has given the listener something new, and indeed something outstandingly good...He suggests that their expressive journey marks them as “Mystery Suites”, travelling from the nativity...to the Resurrection...Unusual as the decision is, it does work.

July 2011

Isserlis couples scholarly depth with technical wizardry and exuberant passion. Time stands still at the intensely moving Fifth Sarabande. Supreme recordings.

2010

Steven Isserlis clearly venerates Casals as an important figure in the suites' history, even paying touching homage to him by appending a performance of a Catalan folksong. Like Casals, Isserlis bided his time before committing them to disc, and he has looked for interpretative guidance to extra-musical ideas.
Isserlis proposes a detailed concept. For him the Suites suggest a meditative cycle on the life of Christ, rather like Biber's Mystery Sonatas.
He points out that this is 'a personal feeling, not a theory', but it has to be said that once you know that he is thinking of the Agony in the Garden during the darkly questioning Second Suite (the five stark chords towards the end of the Prélude representing the wounds of Christ), the Crucifixion in the wearily troubled Fifth or the Resurrection in the joyous Sixth, it adds immense power and interest to his performances.
But then, this is also the most wonderful celloplaying, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music, as well as the most musically alert and vivid. Not everyone will like the brisk tempi (though the Allemandes, for instance, gain in architectural coherence), but few will fail to be charmed by Isserlis's sweetly singing tone, his perfectly voiced chords and superb control of articulation and dynamic – the way the final chord of the First Prélude dies away is spellbinding.
There are so many other delights: the subtle comings and goings of the Third Prélude, the nobly poised Fifth Allemande, the swaggering climax that is the Sixth Gigue – to name but a few. Suffice to say that Isserlis's Bach is a major entrant into an already highly distinguished field, and a disc many will want to return to again and again.

July 2007

…this… the most wonderful cello-playing, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music, as well as the most musically alert and vivid. …few will fail to be charmed by Isserlis's sweetly singing tone, his perfectly voiced chords and superb control of articulation and dynamic - the way the final chord of the First Prélude dies away is spellbinding.

the stuff of legend

Isserlis is a passionate musician, but never thoughtless or frivolous, and the delicacy of his responses on this wonderful set sometimes take the breath away. If your soul fails to quiver in the quiet depths of the fifth suite’s sarabande, then you must be a robot in disguise. Yet he’s not on his knees
always worshipping: time and again Isserlis asserts the music’s dance roots, whether through his thrusting accents or by sweeping through with a winning lilt … Just listen to Isserlis, Bach and your heart, and the music that never dies

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Offer,Bach - The Cello Suites

2 CDs

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