KOSTAS KATSIYIANNIS
Casals, Fournier, Navarra & Rostropovich on Bach's Suites for solo cello

References: Casals, EMI Classics 077776102726 (Recording 1936-39), 2 CD ||| Navarra, Calliope Cal 9641/2  (1977), 2 CD ||| Fournier, Deutsche Grammophon (1961) 419359-2, 2 CD ||| Rostropovich, EMI Classics (1995) 7243 5 55363 2 7, 2 CD

Although the fact that he wrote in a traditional form, as that of a suite, was a necessary evil of his time, it might be interesting for us to reflect that writing in traditional forms was almost certainly a challenge for Bach, since it provided him with the surest way to overcome them, to take them away from the oppressive rules, not by changing their typical, technical and external from -as  Beethoven would dare to do later- but in a "Troyan-Horse" way, a more internal one that concerned the very subject-matter of music, its themes and harmonies, and its chromatic scale, aiming in this way primarily at the particular manner in which this music touches upon the soul. Thus, seeing his work in this light, we find the prevailing interpretative conception not to be unjustified, and although Bach does not exactly ask us to disdain the form of a Suite, his composing skill is such that it can easily carry the performer along with it. So, we arrive at a "peculiar" point of view: to consider a performance "original" when it makes the character of the Suite the paramount feature, although this doesn't of course mean that such a performance is better than any others. 

Having dealt briefly with the work itself, I would point out another thing, which I believe would help a better understanding of the comments on the recordings which follow; for music listeners it should be understood that the Cello is a very expressive instrument, that its sound is closer than many other instruments to the human voice. The 6 Suites are above all music beyond forms, rules and, primarily, beyond those pedantic "authentic" experts. And one last thing: Suites are instrumental music, "and instrumental music should be performed as if it were vocal - that is, as if it were speaking, with the forcefulness of speech"'.[1]

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