Six Evolutions – Bach: Cello Suites
February 2022
Yo-Yo Ma, the world’s most renowned cellist, has recorded for the last time Bach’s Suites for Cello, masterpieces that have become his inseparable companion in his musical career for six decades. His father, a violinist, taught him Suite no. 1, beat by beat, when he was four years old and that memory is very vivid in him. Yo-Yo Ma aims to achieve the maximum diffusion to the musical works that marked a before and after in his personal and musical career.
After a long and successful musical career, he has never lost his fascination for suites and is more convinced than ever of its universal appeal. That intimate relationship with the suites evolved in The Bach project, a two-year 36-city international tour.
Ma invites you to enjoy music without labels. In fact, his interpretation of the Bachian suites, far from the stylistic rigor of the versions made with instruments of that period and the original criteria, is marked by his vehement temperament, with which he gives personality and lights up the dances in each suite.
Through the years Ma’s tempos have remained very steady, although some critics have pointed out that his Courante of no.2 seems excessively fast and no.5 in can be found drastic in content and performance. He particularly excels in the readings of the Preludes, going from the well-shaped no.1 to the solemn no.2 and the pure brilliance of nos.5 and 6.
Vigorous sound, energetic contrasts and Dynamics yet elegant and delicate in the pianissimos. The aerial interpretations of the preludes manifest his polished and peaceful expressiveness, and almost bitter in the gigues that close each suite.
Yo-Yo Ma’s multifaceted career is la living prove of his continuous search for new ways to communicate with the public and his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. And anybody who listens this new CD will clearly understand and hopefully share his pure love for those brilliant and enchanting suites.
– David Gutman
