Jean-Guihen Queyras: Bach

The Strad Issue: December 2024

Description: A revisiting of a classic brings rewards aplenty

Musicians: Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello)

Works: Bach: Cello Suites BWV1007–1012

Catalogue number: HARMONIA MUNDI 90238890 (2 CDs)

Jean-Guihen Queyras’s 2007 recording of Bach’s Cello Suites was critically acclaimed for its lucidity, warmth and expressive depth. His revisiting them in 2023 stemmed from his collaboration with choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Mitten wir in Leben sind (2017), in which his performances of the suites interconnected with Keersmaeker’s dancers and the life–death–salvation scenario conveyed. He also acknowledges the influences of gambist Paolo Pandolfo and jazz saxophonist Raphaël Imbert on the evolution of these readings.

Queyras plays throughout on a 1696 Cappa cello in modern set-up. His thoughtfully determined accounts retain the attributes of his first recording, guiding listeners through the contrasting emotions of Keersmaeker’s scenario; although reflecting a dance influence, they are not dictated by Baroque models. Nevertheless, he acknowledges period style in his selective vibrato usage, gamba-like spreading of most chords, addition of extempore ornamentation (some somewhat frivolous) in most repeated sections and recognition of the hierarchy of the bar, thereby highlighting the progression of Bach’s harmonies. His phrasing is sensitively shaped, dynamic inflections are vividly scaled, tempos are supple and rhythmic flexibility extends to inégalité in no.5’s Prelude, no.3’s Bourrée I and no.2’s Minuet II. His bowing style is generally light, but he plays the rustic drones in no.3’s Gigue with gusto and overcooks his attack in no.5’s Courante and at the end of no.2’s Minuet I. Departures from Bach’s text include some additional harmonies in no.1’s Allemande and no.5’s Gigue and a pizzicato start to no.2’s Minuet I. His sonorous tone is resonantly recorded, but without excessive reverberation.

ROBIN STOWELL