Recordings of Bach Cello Suites?

[tubajon]

Are there any recordings of tuba players doing the Bach cello suites?

[PMeuph]

Ben Pierce has a Bach Album, but he plays the suite on Euphonium.

http://www.benpierce.com/mp3.html" target="_blank

John Fletcher recorded the Minuet and Courante.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3fDuxAlxkM" target="_blank

[PMeuph]

I prefer Yo Yo Ma on cello................ I ALWAYS listen to a top cellist play this.

I'm not sure I consider Yo-Yo Ma's version to be the best one out there... Don't get me wrong, he's a superb player, great technique and sound. To me, his versions lack risk and adventure... Even though it is far from perfect, I prefer the bad recording quality of Casals recording ....

Rostropovich's version is quite impressive, imho.

Also, don't discount a good version on Viola.

It's actually believed that Bach wrote these suites for cello but he used his viola to play them. Or something along those lines...

[Peach]

Robert Cohen gives an extremely worthy account IMO (on Cello). A very tuba-friendly reading if that makes any sense...
Peter Wispelway(sp) also great.
Fletch's snippets from the first are great but I've never been sold on any other versions on brass.
MP

[Tom Gregory]

The Rostropovich is really great but the Janos Starker (Mercury Records) was the interpretaion that really opened up The Tuba Suites for me. He phrases in a way a wind player might find more suitable.

[Steve Marcus]

It's a shame that there isn't a public recording of the Master Class conducted by Yo-Yo Ma last year at Chicago's Symphony Center about playing the Bach Cello Suites on a wind instrument. There were wonderful performances and excellent ideas suggested.

[oedipoes]

Sigiswald Kuijken has done impressive reconstruction work on the cello suites.
His work has revealed the "viola da spalla" as the original instrument for this music.
You can see his splendid performance in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=081JUQ7f6Yo

Wim

[chronolith]

Another vote for Starker. That recording inspired me to work on it for the tuba.

[KentEshelman]

This may not be what you're after, but I recorded a jazz version of the Gigue from the 5th Suite on my CD, Life Is Good (PKO Records)!

Kent Eshelman

[J.c. Sherman]

Fletch introduced the Bach Suites to me through his recording (on the Barok Brass cassette of PJBE I owned back when the earth cooled). He still inspires me.

Love the Starker; but one should make themselves familiar with Anner Bylsma's recording; these are well researched, unique, and show a very different and dance-like approach than that which has become the norm. He's the foundation of historic cello performance.

Casals... well, they can never beat him, and they are "how they go". Ma's is excellent in the same vein, clearer, and more careful, but less carefree.

The Fifth Suite and the 3rd Lute Suite are the same work; be sure to listen to a great lutenist perform as well - you can get a different viewpoint with serious street-cred of an "arrangement" by Bach himself... how he saw the MUSIC vs. the instrument used to produce it. There's also a dynamite performance of the 1st Suite performed on Lute, which I sadly own only on an old unmarked cassette tape... I'd love to know who performed it, but I think it's probably Julian Bream or Nigel North. It is the 1st suite to my ear.

Listen to many versions... and to other suites and works for unaccompanied wind instruments (flute) to get a good idea what to do with the "Tuba" Suites

[Art Hovey]

I risk being burned as a heretic for holding this opinion, but here it goes anyway:

I don't like the way cellists play the Bach Cello Suites, because they customarily allow the ornamentation to interfere with the rhythm. That makes them sound (to my un-cultured ears) like the student who slows down every time he comes to a lick that he can't play in tempo. I believe that the titles of the movements indicate that they are supposed to be dance music, and if I were a dancer I would prefer music with a steady beat.

Someone once tried to correct me by pointing out that it's the "French Style", but I am not french, and neither was Bach.

I spent a lot of time practicing the suites on tuba before I ever bothered to listen to any recordings. When I finally did start listening to them as performed by cellists I found that most of my tempos were close to theirs, but their ornamentations were annoying. I certainly am not capable of performing them, but they are great material for the practice room. They never get stale. I would love to hear a really good tubist just play them straight, without trying to be a Pablo or a Yo-Yo.

-Art (who doesn't care for operatic singing either) Hovey-

[J.c. Sherman]

I risk being burned as a heretic for holding this opinion, but here it goes anyway:

I don't like the way cellists play the Bach Cello Suites, because they customarily allow the ornamentation to interfere with the rhythm. That makes them sound (to my un-cultured ears) like the student who slows down every time he comes to a lick that he can't play in tempo. I believe that the titles of the movements indicate that they are supposed to be dance music, and if I were a dancer I would prefer music with a steady beat.

Someone once tried to correct my by pointing out that it's the "French Style", but I am not french, and neither was Bach.

I spent a lot of time practicing the suites on tuba before I ever bothered to listen to any recordings. When I finally did start listening to them as performed by cellists I found that most of my tempos were close to theirs, but their ornamentations were annoying. I certainly am not capable of performing them, but they are great material for the practice room. They never get stale. I would love to hear a really good tubist just play them straight, without trying to be a Pablo or a Yo-Yo.

-Art (who doesn't care for operatic singing either) Hovey-

Bach wasn't French, but the French Danse Suite was as Pan-European as Rock and Roll. And those ornaments, written or not, are implied and (hopefully) well studied. You may want to give a listen to the Bylsma if you prefer more danse-like atmosphere for these. But you do have to remember that our idea of metronomic rigidity of tempo is fairly new, not old. One wouldn't actually danse to the cellist playing this in 1740. YMMV.

J.c.S.