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KOSTAS KATSIYIANNIS
Casals, Fournier, Navarra & Rostropovich on Bach's Suites for solo cello |
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| The Fifth Suite | |||||
Casals and Fournier are never so far away from each other as in the fifth Suite, yet you can't help thinking that they are complementary to one another. This fact is particularly evident in the Prelude, Sarabande and Gigue, in which the former gives a very tasteful improvised tune with impeccable trills and crescendi, whilst the latter commands a very good vibrato, but lower trills. Rostropovich starts the Prelude astonishingly, but (from measure 27 and on) he doesn't continue equally as well. In the Allemands and the Gigue he has his best moments, but unfortunately, the rest of the movements are somehow flat. The Sarabande, which is Rostropovich's favourite[1], goes to the other extreme. Navarra, apart from his intense and semantic relief playing, he has nothing to display in particular. His interpretation as well as that of Rostropovich's is perhaps the most unfortunate. [1] He himself savs: "This Suite has a wonderful Sarabande, which is probably the saddest of any in the Suites. It has a particular sincerity and candour, a musical vulnerability, like that of a person in prayer. You don't play this music for the audience, you play it for yourself..." (italics mine).
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Bach is the surpreme genius of music... This man, who knows everything and feels everything, cannot write one note, however unimportant it may appear, which is anything but transcendent. He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way. Pablo Casals |
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