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

The sixth Suite, "symphony for a solo cello', as Rostropovich calls it, belongs to him by right. The Prelude forms an interpretative achievement. The sound effect that Rostropovich was looking for has been rendered (in measures 23-27) in a way perhaps unique in the history of music. It might sound daring, but I believe that with this interpretation, the great musician has attained the summit of technique for his instrument, unknown until now. The Allemande continues with a very beautiful vocalization, the Courante sounds somehow masterly, certainly not bad, the Sarabande is also good, the Gavottes, although somehow speeded up, have a magestic pulse, and the Gigue, although again a little too slow, is indeed good. Navarra takes the torch with a very dramatic Allemande (where, moreover, in measure[1] 4 he is the only one who shows off the lower voice as it is actually written in the score), and in the movements that follow he keeps a characteristic style, although the Gigue sounds somehow dry. Fournier's crowning moment is in the Sarabande, and the Gigue is dancelike enough. Finally Casals shows an intensely personal style in the Prelude; he continues well in the two following movements, but from the Sarabande on he sounds a little wild and flat.

Casals, on his first encounter with Bach's solo cello suites:

I began playing them with indescribable excitement. They became my most cherished music... I was thirteen at the time, but for the following eighty years the wonder of my discovery has continued to grow on me. Those suites opened up a whole new world.

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