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Bach: Suites (6) for Violoncello Solo

Anner Bylsma: Violoncello Stradivarius "Servais"

Label: Sony 2CD: 55'16 + 60'11

CD : 1

1. Suite No. 1 In G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude

2. Suite No. 1 In G Major, BWV 1007: II. Allemande

3. Suite No. 1 In G Major, BWV 1007: III. Courante

4. Suite No. 1 In G Major, BWV 1007: IV. Sarabande

5. Suite No. 1 In G Major, BWV 1007: V. Menuet I/II

6. Suite No. 1 In G Major, BWV 1007: VI. Gigue

7. Suite No. 2 In D Minor, BWV 1008: I. Prelude

8. Suite No. 2 In D Minor, BWV 1008: II. Allemande

9. Suite No. 2 In D Minor, BWV 1008: III. Courante

10. Suite No. 2 In D Minor, BWV 1008: IV. Sarabande

11. Suite No. 2 In D Minor, BWV 1008: V. Menuet I/II

12. Suite No. 2 In D Minor, BWV 1008: VI. Gigue

13. Suite No. 3 In C Major, BWV 1009: I. Prelude

14. Suite No. 3 In C Major, BWV 1009: II. Allemande

15. Suite No. 3 In C Major, BWV 1009: III. Courante

16. Suite No. 3 In C Major, BWV 1009: IV. Sarabande

17. Suite No. 3 In C Major, BWV 1009: V. Bourree I/II

18. Suite No. 3 In C Major, BWV 1009: VI. Gigue

CD: 2

1. Suite No.4 in E-flat Major BWV 1010: I. Prelude

2. Suite No.4 in E-flat Major BWV 1010: II. Allemande

3. Suite No.4 in E-flat Major BWV 1010: III. Courante

4. Suite No.4 in E-flat Major BWV 1010: IV. Sarabande

5. Suite No.4 in E-flat Major BWV 1010: V. Bourree I/II

6. Suite No.4 in E-flat Major BWV 1010: VI. Gigue

7. Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1001: I. Prelude

8. Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1001: II. Allemande

9. Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1001: III. Courante

10. Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1001: IV. Sarabande

11. Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1001: V. Gavotte I/II

12. Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1001: VI. Gigue

13. Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV1012: I. Prelude

14. Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV1012: II. Allemande

15. Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV1012: III. Courante

16. Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV1012: IV. Sarabande

17. Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV1012: V.Gavotte I/II

18. Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV1012: VI. Gigue

The Bach Cello Suites - Reflections in Six Movements

What the Suites May be About

Few moments in music are as alive with possibility as the opening measures of the Prelude to the First Suite. Launched from the cello's lowest G, the simple broken chordal figures are soon heard, not as one melody line, but as a multiplicity of melodies skillfully woven together. One senses that the music to come, despite its origins in a single-note instrument, will acknowledge no limits on where it can go or what it can be.

From Anner Bylsma's liner notes to his 1992 recording of the suites:

"he Cello Suites ... to pose the question: how many notes can one take away and still leave a complete suite in the mind of the listener, harmony and counterpoint included - not forgetting the many dissonances and syncopations in this case which exist only in the memory of the audience."

The Social Function of the Cello

In Bach's day no one made his living playing solo cello, and few people with any claim to social status played it at all. The well-to-do favored the refined and elegant sound of the viola da gamba, which had a rich literature of solo pieces from composers such as Marais in France and Abel in Germany. The relatively cruder cello was regarded as one step removed from the beer hall, and cello parts tended to be simple accompaniment lines that required little in the way of virtuoso technique or expressive ability. Bach's six suites for solo cello, probably written while he was at Cöthen between 1717 and 1723, were unprecedented. His decision to assign the noble and cultivated suite form to the cello, while producing only three lovely but less ambitious sonatas for gamba and obbligato harpsichord, represented a complete inversion of the "natural" order of instrumental hierarchy. Musicologist Michael Marissen speculates that Bach's choice of instruments may have reflected his Lutheran theology, with its emphasis on Biblical passages exalting the meek and lowly over the strong and mighty.

The Cinematic Function of the Cello

Woody Allen considered the possibilities of the cello from a different angle. In a famous scene in Take the Money and Run the hapless hero plays the cello in a marching band, frantically dragging his chair down the street in a fruitless attempt to keep up.

Woody was closer to the mark, historically, than he realized. Until shortly before Bach's time cellos were frequently played standing up. In fact, in the late 1600s, some cellos were fitted with bands which allowed them to be hung from the neck of the performer; these were called procession cellos and were actually used ceremonially. Only the simplest pieces could be played in this manner, and Bach's magnificent compositions would not have been playable until the instrument had been adapted in various ways that allowed it to be played sitting down.

Baroque Dances Old and New

Each of the suites has six movements: a free-form prelude followed by five Baroque dances, each in binary form with the two halves repeated. The allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue had been around for over a century before Bach's time, and Bach was familiar with keyboard suites by composers like Froberger (nearly 70 years Bach's senior) that featured only these four dances. In the cello suites, as in many of his suites for harpsichord, Bach added a fifth dance between the sarabande and gigue. These added dances were almost always newfangled French inventions, including the minuet (Suites 1 and 2), the bouree (Suites 3 and 4) and the gavotte (Suites 5 and 6). In modern terms, a composer wanting to create a similar effect might write a suite of dances consisting of a foxtrot, a waltz, a tango and a charleston, with a disco number thrown in near the end. The disco piece would be one that you could actually dance to, while the others would be much more stylized and abstracted from their origins.

How One Might Play the Suites

Anner Bylsma uses a cello by Matteo Goffriller which was built in Venice in 1693. Historically informed performance, however, has much more to do with how the instrument is played than which instrument is used. Bylsma again:

"What I refuse to believe is that Bach wants us to do the great, big line, the bad opera singing in which one is unable to hear the words: AHAHOHOHEHEH ('amore'), the booming and the bawling! To use the bow to imitate this kind of primitive singing - for instance, the relentless playing of slurs of eight notes per bow in the prelude of the 1st suite - is so boring, it should be forbidden." (From Bach, The Fencing Master.)

Characters in the Drama

As the above quote suggests, the sound-world of the Suites is as much that of rhetoric as of song. In the allemandes, in particular, one seems to hear old Uncle Jack reminiscing about how things used to be; in the preludes, Professor Johann convinces his class (without too much effort) that he knows more about the subject at hand than they ever will. Other characters in the wordless opera can be conjured up by those so inclined: the prayerful penitent of the Sarabande in the Fifth Suite, whose path to faithful acceptance is strewn with doubts; and the clownish suitor of the Courante in the Fourth Suite, who can't seem to stop stammering and blushing.

None of this is proposed as "historical", of course. Just as there can be no one "left" way to play the Suites, so there is no one way to hear them. Each listener is invited to explore whatever corners of Bach's endless universe seem most inviting, knowing that each return visit to this astonishing music will reveal new wonders.

Notes by Russ Ayres and Ann Valdes

Bio

Internationally acclaimed Anner Bylsma is recognized as one of the finest musicians to perform on both modern and baroque cellos. Noted for his expressiveness and wit, Mr. Bylsma performs and teaches throughout the world.

At an early age, Mr. Bylsma received his most important education from his father, a passionate musician himself. Later he studied with Carel Boomkamp at The Royal Conservatory in The Hague, his native town. In 1957, he received The Royal Conservatory's Prix d'Excellence, and quickly established an international reputation by winning the 1959 Pablo Casals Competition. For six years, Mr. Bylsma was principal cellist of the world-famous Concertgebouw Orchestra, performing the major cello concerti repertoire. He has since held the 1982 Erasmus Scholar appointment at Harvard University, and been on the faculties of The Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and The Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory.

Frequently performing throughout Europe, Anner Bylsma appears with major European orchestras as well as in recital. His musical activities also take him to Japan, Eastern Europe, Australia, and frequently to the United States. He also performs with several chamber ensembles including Rondom, which specializes in 20th century music, and in a trio with Frans Brueggen, recorder, and Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord.

Anner Bylsma is perhaps best known for his interpretation of music from the baroque and early classical periods. In particular, his interpretation of the Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello (Pro Arte) has gained worldwide attention. He has received the highest critical acclaim for his performance in recital of these six suites, which are considered the supreme works in the literature for baroque cello. His second recording of the Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites was released in 1992 on Sony Classical.

Of those musicians who perform baroque music on early instruments, Anner Bylsma is among the most recorded. He has appeared widely on such labels as Das Alte Werke, Telefunken, Harmonia Mundi, and BASF. In addition, Anner Bylsma has been filmed in Vienna for the Granada Television production of Man and Music as well as in Toronto for the Rhombus Media's video production of All That Bach. Mr. Bylsma, also an accomplished author, recently published Bach, the Fencing Master.

Mr. Bylsma is a welcome performer in the United States and Canada, and performs regularly on major series and with orchestras. In recent seasons he has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke at Carnegie Hall and with Malcolm Bilson at Merkin Hall, among others. He has appeared on numerous early music series, such as Vancouver Early Music and Calgary Pro Musica.

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