Wispelwey Plays Bach Cello Suites
November 10, 2013
* Notes *
Pieter Wispelwey performed Bach's Complete Suites for Unaccompanied Cello last Saturday at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, San Francisco. His playing is focused, rapid, and crisp. The phrasing and inflection of the notes was idiosyncratic, and one could never mistake Wispelwey's playing with someone else's. Though one would be hard pressed to call his sound beautiful, his interpretations were far from boring and the audience, especially for the afternoon performance of the first three suites, seemed captivated. Wispelwey played the Praeludium from Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 as the encore for the evening performance.
* Tattling *
Though two couples I sat in front of for the second performance in Row K Seats 14-20 were annoyingly loud during the music, I was glad to speak to the man next to me in Row J Seat 20, who absolutely loves the pieces and had recommendations for various recordings of them. He suggested the performers János Starker, Anner Bylsma, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Pablo Casals, at least, to start.