RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Cello Suites Nos.1-6 BWV 1007-1012
André Navarra (cello)
rec. 1977
PHAIA PHU017.18 [69:24 + 70:17]
Of French cellists of the recent past, three tended to dominate the catalogue
when it came to the Bach suites: Tortelier, Fournier and Gendron. Tortelier
was perhaps the most charismatic, Gendron the most perfectly in tune and Fournier
the most aristocratic. There was another elite French romanticist who committed
his performance to disc and that was the ex-boxer André Navarra. In
1977 Georges Kisselhoff, who died recently, recorded Navarra in studio traversals
of all the suites. This was the set that is probably most familiar now on
Calliope 9641.2. I’m not sure as to the whys and wherefores of its appearance
here on the Phaia label, but I hope that as many people as possible have the
opportunity to listen to these noble, but freely-moving, dancing, intense,
probing performances, ones that establish him, as if any such establishment
were needed, as fully deserving of his place in that pantheon of great French
cellists.
Commitment and love: one senses both in every bar. The tone is freighted with
rich colours but lightens when need be. Bowing remains flexible. The movements
are played with directness, but never with any sense of coolness or doctrinaire
detachment, as one so often finds. Equally they never get bogged down in slow
movements and whilst, say, the Sarabande of the third suite is imbued
with rich vibrato, and whilst it’s also deeply expressive, it’s
not out of scale with the other movements, as sometimes can be the case in
performances of musicians of Navarra’s vintage.
Navarra clearly has no stylistic agenda. Instead his playing evinces grace,
momentum and communicative intensity and, for all his accumulated wisdom in
the suites, there is also from time to time a real sense, imagined or not,
of spontaneity and risk-taking. His rhythmic assurance, as befits a great
chamber player, is much to the fore and he brings fast moving Gavottes
firmly to life. He plays the first Bourrée of the Fourth suite
with a wonderful sense of motion.
The recording is now over 35 years old but sounds as fresh as the day it was
taped. The performances are beyond matters of mere appellation, beyond ‘historically
informed’ or ‘conventional’ performances. They simply feel
right - in terms of tempo, of tone, of articulation, of characterisation.
Above all, these are living and breathing interpretations. The only thing
being paraded here is the music’s greatness and the artist’s role
in acting as the agent of that greatness.
Jonathan Woolf
The only thing being paraded here is the music’s greatness and the artist’s
role in acting as the agent of that greatness.
Masterwork Index: Bach cello suites
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