Johann Sebastian Bach composed the six suites for unaccompanied cello between 1717 and 1723, and they are some of the most recognized pieces for solo cello. Their popularity didn’t arise until after 1900 when many musicians performed and transcribed these pieces.
Pablo Casals, a cellist from Barcelona, Spain, discovered the suites and began studying them when he was thirteen. He didn’t record them, however, until 1936 when he was sixty years old. Suite No. 2 in D Minor specifically showed his incredible skills of his interpretation in the recording. He gives the piece vast amounts of movement with drastic dynamic swells in each phrase and held note. He is very skilled with his phrase articulation, playing legato lines with stops at each phrase end. This fits very nicely with his rubato timing because each phrase end gives him time to pause and build emotional suspense. He also shows emotion with a mild vibrato on his harmonies. The sound of his instrument is very dry, with subtle string screeches and scratches, but some of the tone may be accredited to the recording technology of the time.
Another recording of this piece was done by Maurice Gendron in 1964, and shows a different interpretation that may grab listener’s attention more easily. Immediately, his faster, heavier vibrato shows a more solemn emotion to the audience as compared to Casals’ performance. When midrange notes make quick interval changes to lower notes, Gendron plays them more gentle than Casals, so it seems to give the piece a better sense of control. Every sustained note went somewhere, as many of them started with a sforzando and finished with a swelling crescendo. These differences in Gendron’s interpretation and Casals’ interpretation, however subtle they may be, seem to display a more emotional caliber of musicality coming from Gendron that more easily captivates the audience.
Here are clips of both tracks. Pay close attention to the different dynamic swells, crescendos, decrescendos, thickness in vibrato, and accents on large note intervals to discover which interpretation you find more emotionally stimulating.
http://www.4shared.com/mp3/NPiZhXWk/bach_cello_suite_-_no2_in_d_mi.htm
Cameron Brownell 