5 stars (Max)
At present the catalogue boasts over 200 complete recordings of the Cello Suites. This version features the principal cellist of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Henrik Dam Thomsen, who uses his own 1680 Fransceco Ruggiero tuned to the orchestras A442, modern strings, bow and variable vibrato.
In the programme notes Thomsen says he likes J.N. Forkel’s description of Bach’s keyboard playing, which says he used brisk tempi and yet as early as the Prelude and Allemande of the Second Suite Thomsen creates at relaxed tempi a romantic, rich sound-world, where atmosphere as opposed to the dance dominate. And yet the Bourees of the Third Suite and Fourth are delightfully sprung, with an extensive rage of micro-dynamics.
Nowhere do you feel that the tempi are anything other than justo and the sounds he produces are always immensely civilised, with plenty of weight of attack, tonal shading and restrained embellishment
Throughout – but especially in the Sixth – Thomsen makes eloquent sense of all the inner lines to help create a series of eloquent conversations with the composer and thereby the listener
There is a sense of rightness to everything Thomsen does and crucially unlike so many other artists who have recently essayed these masterworks he has command and charisma and as such I would please these accounts with Casals, Fournier, Starker (EMI and Mercury) Tortelier (1983) et al, in the pantheon of excellence.
The suites were recorded in the Baroque Garnisons Church, Copenhagen, using immersive DXD format and Dolby Atmos. This was a mistake. Go to the worlds’ finest hall for chamber music, the Wigmore and you have a maximum reverb time of 2.1 seconds and when the great Mercury Engineer Robert Eberenz recorded Starker he is there in front of you middle-distance, without the coloration excess reverb causes. Nevertheless Thomsen is still vividly caught with plenty of body and lustre on the 24/192 stream and the DSD512 as ever has enormous presence. October 1 2024 Rob Pennock