Profile: Mark
First things first. I am not a cellist, nor do I profess to have any other instrumental skills. However, I have had a lifelong passion for listening to music of all genres. This began from a very early age when my party trick was to be able to go and select out any record my parents asked me to find. A feat carried out even before I could read! My classical music interest blossomed at primary school. During a school test, I embarrassed myself by my answering that Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony was written by Richmal Crompton! (At that stage I neither knew what a symphony was nor had heard of the composer and so wrongly assumed it was a children’s book….). I promptly raided the school library for a book on classical composers and suddenly a whole new world of listening via my local library’s lp’s opened up.
The past.
In my teens I performed in Gilbert and Sullivan operas and was a member of a well respected Youth Choir. This lead to opportunities to sing in Europe, USA, Canada and memorably the Royal Albert Hall under Sir David Willcocks. All of these experiences developed my listening skills greatly.
Here and now.
Fast forward to today. Having taken early retirement a couple of years back, I now run a local Music Appreciation group under the auspices of the University of the Third Age. This gives me the delightful task of sharing my passion. I lead classically oriented listening and learning sessions with other like minded souls. I am aided in this task by being lucky enough to have amassed several thousand cd’s over the years. Of these I currently have over a dozen versions of the Bach Suites (having also heard several more) and can honestly say no two versions are anywhere near the same.
What I look for.
Inevitably, as a non cellist, my reviews of recordings I have heard will not focus on technical performance issues. Instead I tend to look for how the suites are shaped and hold together structurally. Also I look to see if the readings have an innate musicality about them.
My dislikes.
As to my own prejudices regarding interpretations of the suites, I do have an issue with what I call excessive “tippy tappy” in the playing, caused I am informed by the firm pressing down of the strings onto the body of the cello. I also dislike readings where I think there is too much of the performer in the reading and not enough Bach! Fortunately, they seem to be reasonably rare. There is always something new to hear and enjoy from these endlessly fascinating pieces. If our reviews on this site encourage you to explore further then that will be mission accomplished!
My Sound System
Musical Fidelity Nuvista 3D cd player (fine tuned)
Tom Evans – The Vibe (Phoenix) pre amp, Pulse 2 power supply, Linear A power amp.
Proac Response D30R speakers, with Black Rhodium Ninja DCT cables
Profile: Charles
I would describe myself as a keen amateur cello player. I play in a local amateur orchestra, The Boots Orchestra. Like so many, my introduction to the Suites was the Bourrees from Suite no 3 which was a grade 7 exam piece. From there it was a natural progression to explore the rest of the Suites particularly the first 3 which are technically simpler.
One of my teachers had lessons from Paul Tortelier and she was very keen to share his bowing and phrasing. I mention this not to name drop but to attribute any insight I have into the performances of the Suites to an awareness of how critical the bowing and phrasing is in the final performance.
I also enjoy many forms of modern music. As mentioned in the introduction page I think the attraction of the Bach cello Suites, personally, is that they invite a freer flowing liberal approach akin to jazz, than most other classical music, helped by the fact that the cello is solo.
The technical bits.
I also have a keen interest in sound reproduction and have assembled a system of reasonable if not top notch quality over the last 40 years with which I am very happy. There is sometimes a danger of concerns about sound quality getting in the way of musical appreciation, but there is equally a situation where deficiencies in sound reproduction can spoil the engagement with a piece of music and awareness of subtleties in performance.
My sound system
Thorens 160 Super turntable with Mission 774 arm Audio Origami rewire, Origin live motor, upgraded springs and Inspire plinth. MoFi ultra phono stage.
Sugden A21a integrated amp
Kef Reference 1-2 speakers
Meridian CD 200 transport 263 DAC replaced by NAIM CD5XS in 2001
Streaming: Tidal or Presto Classical via Audirvana desktop control on Mac to Cambridge Dacmagic 200M to Sugden.
