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GRAMOPHONE (07/2014)
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BIS2033
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Reviewer: Caroline
Gill
Finally, the Ukrainian viola
player Maxim Rysanov has completed his collection of JS Bach’s Cello Suites
transcribed for viola after the 2010 release of the monumental first volume
(A/10). And as with the first, although it may be that that rise in tessitura
suffocates some of the calm out of certain movements, this second volume
displays the sort of exhilarating and challenging perspective that deserves to
make it endure as one of these masterworks’ great interpretations. What may be
lost in depth of pitch is certainly not lost in depth of tone, and Rysanov finds
a refined way through his performance that is not evangelically authentic and
yet – with its subtle phrasing and elegantly sparse embellishment – stops far
short of the traditionally Romantic Russian school of Bach-playing. It is in the
Second Suite, though, where he uses a different, lighter bow and keeps the music
at pitch an octave up (rather than playing it up only a fifth, as most viola
players do), where he moves the music from a direct transcription of cello music
into the world of the viola da gamba. It is here that the music takes on an
entirely different character and brings out the dance element it is always very
difficult to hear on the cello (in particular in the Gigue, here and in the
other two suites, Rysanov brings out music that is about as ugly and aggressive
as Bach gets, which is enormously exciting). This, of all the suites, is
surprisingly easy to acclimatise the ear to: no, it’s not like listening to the
Cello Suites on a viola but, as Rysanov plays it, it’s like listening to and
falling in love with the piece for the first time. And that should be taken as
the rare and beautiful opportunity it is.
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