Bach: The Cello Suites : Hyperion UK

The Bach Cello Suites must have been recorded by virtually every great cellist past and present, beginning with Pablo Casals. This new recording by Steven Isserlis must rank among the best, technically and musically. His approach to the Suites is based on a careful analysis of the sources, a study of historical and recent research, and his own instinctive feeling. He explains all this in scholarly liner notes leavened with humor and personal comments. Isserlis describes the Suites as a succession of dances introduced by Preludes to set their mood and tonality. He feels, though, that Bach greatly transcended their dance character, especially in the Sarabandes which, through their depth and expressiveness, form the core of the Suites. Moreover, contemporary scholarship and the Suites' cumulative structural complexity and emotional intensity lead him to believe that, like the violin Sonatas and Partitas, they are connected to specific Church festivals celebrating certain aspects of the Passion story. He especially points to the tragic, oppressive character of No. 5 (the Crucifixion) and the triumphant radiance of No. 6 (the Resurrection), conceived for a five-stringed instrument.

The remarkable thing is that Isserlis brings all this out in his playing. His tone, with sparing vibrato, is warm and austere, dark in the two sorrowful minor-mode Suites, bright in the others. His phrasing is as natural as speech; with perfectly controlled rhythm, the dances really dance. Voices stand out like threads in a tapestry. Bach's own manuscript having been lost, Isserlis adds three versions of the first Prelude taken from the earliest copies, and honors Casals with "The Song of the Birds," a Catalan folksong closely associated with him. Lovers of Bach and great cello playing must not miss this recording. --Edith Eisler - $31.69

Brahms: Cello Sonatas : Hyperion UK

Steven Isserlis is not only one of our best, but one of our most adventurous cellists, always searching out neglected works as well as both personal and artistic links between composers. On this recording, the Brahms Sonatas flank less-familiar pieces by two composers intimately related to each other and also connected with Brahms: Dvorák and his pupil and son-in-law, Josef Suk. In "Silent Woods," arranged from one of his own piano duets, Dvorák's gift for capturing the sounds and atmosphere of nature beautifully evokes the forest's repose and awakening. The Rondo contrasts a song-like, pensive, gracious theme with more vigorous, brilliant episodes; minor and major alternate and combine in the coda. Suk's Ballade is passionate, dramatic and rhapsodic; the Serenade is a lively, charming dance, whose light-heartedness is interrupted by a startling modulation like a passing cloud. The playing throughout is superb: technically impeccable, tonally beautiful, warm and varied, deeply expressive. With the close rapport of frequent partners, Isserlis and the splendid pianist Stephen Hough engage in wonderful conversational interplay. They give Brahms' first sonata an inward, autumnal mellowness and the second - amazingly written 20 years later - a youthful, vigorous exuberance; the sunlit Finale floats on air. One can hardly imagine a better performance. --Edith Eisler - $14.53

Cello World : RCA

- $8.25

Children's Cello : Bis

- $14.51

Steven Isserlis Plays Schumann : RCA Victor Europe

- $20.68

Steven Isserlis plays Works for Cello and Orchestra : Virgin Records Us

- $14.43

Steven Isserlis - Haydn: Cello Concertos in C & D, Sinfonia Concertante : RCA Victor Europe

- $12.97

Rachmaninov, Franck: Cello Sonatas : Hyperion UK

Steven Isserlis is not only one of the finest, but one of the most adventurous cellists around; you can always trust him to have a surprise in store. On this disc, he pairs two famous sonatas with two of their composers' unfamiliar pieces: a slow, singing Prelude and an exotic Oriental Dance by Rachmaninov, and two songs with cello obbligato, one secular, one sacred, by Franck. The playing throughout is beyond praise. Isserlis' instrumental mastery is complete; technical problems do not exist. His tone is beautiful, dark, warm, focused, infinitely variable in color, nuance and intensity, flawlessly pure on all strings and in every register. His playing is striking for its unfailing nobility; free but controlled, it is inwardly expressive but never sentimental, ardently romantic and passionate but never excessive. The slow opening of the Rachmaninov is pure magic: unvibrated, it feels like a reluctant, gradual awakening. The movement is played for poetic, pensive lyri! cism, not bravura, but builds up to a passionate climax and ends in a blaze of glory. The Scherzo is ominous, the Trio is warmly serene, the slow movement sings luxuriously, and the Finale is brilliant, joyful, triumphant. Pianist Stephen Hough gives free rein to his virtuosity, but never overpowers the cello; his approach is more freely rhapsodic than that of Isserlis, but their interplay, ensemble, and balance are excellent. They play the Franck so convincingly that one almost forgets this is really a violin sonata. (In his always enlightening, entertaining program notes, Isserlis claims that both versions are equally authentic.) Though one misses the shimmering radiance of the violin's high register in the corner movements, their dreamy, sunlit serenity remains intact; the cello tone has a floating, disembodied transparency, but builds up tremendous power in the climaxes. The second movement is fast and tempestuous, while the third is very free and imaginative, almost op! eratic in its contrasts and mood changes. --Edith Eisler - $14.53

Saint-Saens: Sonatas for cello No2; Concertos for cello in Dm : RCA

Steven Isserlis is a splendid cellist with a consummate technique and a focused, intense tone capable of infinite variety. He's an enterprising, imaginative musician with a penchant for centering programs on a single composer or national idiom. He has recorded French sonatas for Virgin Classics, and for RCA, the works of Mendelssohn, John Taverner, Haydn, and Czech and Russian composers.

On his latest CD, Isserlis performs four relatively unfamiliar compositions of Saint-Saëns. Unfortunately, obscure works by a good composer are usually neglected for a reason. Indeed, the Second Concerto, Op. 119, and Second Sonata, Op. 123, presented here are inferior to their earlier counterparts in structural cohesion and melodic inspiration, though the Sonata contains an arresting, unusual Scherzo in the form of variations and a devout, dramatic slow movement. There are also two shorter pieces: Romance Op. 67, an appealingly melodious, slow, dreamy, subdued piece, and "La Muse et le Poète," Op. 132, for solo violin and cello with orchestra. An extended tone-poem, almost impressionist in its colorful orchestration, "La Muse" is mostly a rhapsodic dialogue between the two soloists, who unite only in a few climactic moments. Both parts are extremely difficult and continually ascend into the highest register.

Isserlis has chosen his partners wisely. Joshua Bell's brilliant virtuosity and radiant, soaring tone give the music a rapturous, ecstatic expressiveness. In the Sonata, pianist Pascal Devoyon, a specialist in French music who also partners with Isserlis on the French recording, is a marvelous collaborator. Isserlis plays with a combination of austere nobility and romantic ardor that bring out the music's strengths and conceal its weaknesses. --Edith Eisler - $7.35

Fauré: Complete Works for Cello : RCA

- $8.41