Six years ago, talking about the playing of Bach, German cellist Maria Kliegel was worried a musician could become too constricted by rules. She concluded, playing in a manner true to oneself would always be the ultimate authenticity. And so she does with her Bach's Cello Suites, recorded in Budapest
almost two years ago and now available on a Naxos double CD.
The 1693 Stradivarius which brought such light and air to her Beethoven sonatas a few years back has never sounded better and Kliegel invests each suite with a remarkable individuality. There is a tinge of menace to the mournfulness in the D minor Suite, while joy and jubilation run through the extrovert C major work.
Extraneous noises will distract some; others might take exception to too many moments of strained intonation, evident from the first courante of the set. Yet, on the plus side, could one imagine the G Major Minuets delivered with more grace and poise, or not thrill to the almost Bartokian outbursts in the C Major Gigue?
In a competitive catalogue, Kliegel hardly ousts Anner Bylsma's 1992 set or Mischa Maisky's most recent and most eccentric visiting of the pieces, but it certainly whets the appetite for the October concert tour with violinist Ida Bieler and pianist Nina Tichman.
And now for something completely different, the stuff of which nightmares are made for the Back-to-Baroquers - Bach, dashed and splashed all over an orchestral canvas by the flamboyant Leopold Stokowski, the man who, hand in hand with Uncle Walt, gave the world Fantasia.
Matthias Bamert was the great conductor's assistant back in the 70s, and now adds a further volume of Stokowski's Bach transcriptions to the Chandos catalogue, played with verve and affection by the BBC Philharmonic. Rarities like the unpublished and previously unperformed Aus tiefer Noth, with its ghostly brass chorales, sit alongside a preludio from the E major Violin Partita with Vivaldi-like storms that rival Stokowski's own spectacular Phase Four recordings for Decca.
From the intricate voicings of the G minor Fantasia to the lilting Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, this is a welcome showcase.
* Bach, Cello Suites (Naxos 8.557280); Stokowski's Symphonic Bach Volume 2 (Chandos 10282, through Ode Records)
