The first three suites are on Disk 1 and the last three are on Disk 2. The video begins with an excellent talk by Rostropovitch in Russian (subtitles in 4 languages) of his take on the music of Bach. I assume this was scripted but it appeared completely natural with no obvious looking at prompters. It is charmingly intimate. Rostropovitch capably demonstrates on the piano (with a tad too much pedal) the musical points he is making. (It has been said that Casals began every day playing on the piano one of the Bach preludes and fugues from the WTC which he considered the “cornerstone of all music.”) He even gives us the first few bars of Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu comparing the rise and fall of the first musical line to Bach’s WTC Book I C major prelude and the opening of the Cello Suit in G. It was interesting, informative and entertaining.

Rostropovitch precedes each suite by some analysis with the use of the piano and in the last suite the organ at the Basilique to assist our understanding. I found this very helpful. In addition, he gives extra musical titles to the suites, G Major - ‘Lightness’, D Minor - ‘Sorrow and Intensity’, C Major - ‘Brilliance’, E-Flat Major -‘Majesty and Opacity’, C Minor, ‘Darkness’ and D Major - ‘Sunlight’. Purists might complain that these titles will only confuse the listener because Bach’s music must be understood and felt apart from any name. I see nothing wrong with this. Rostropovitch merely wants us to know the general feeling that he wants to convey; in other words, his fixed idea of the performance. The music, of course, is larger than his take and one comes away from the performance with one’s own idea of its emotional content.

What about the performances themselves? Much has been made of Casals’s interpretation of the Suites as being too romantic. Perhaps in retrospect this is true. But it is also true that we hear music with our 21st century ears with some 300 years of evolving music experiences. We cannot hear Bach isolated from this fact. Having said that, I found Rostropovitch’s performance both faithful, contemporary and relevant. When I say faithful, one must remember that in the original manuscripts of his music there are rarely, if any, musical markings for performance. In addition, the original manuscripts of the Suites have only come to us by copy from Anna Magdelena.

Rostropovitch has the score present about 4 feet from him. He looks at it more in some Suites than others. Perhaps it is nothing more than a security blanket which is needed as these pieces are immensely difficult. But he is so technically proficient, one just sits back and enjoys the music. Without distracting mannerisms, he is not once on display, only the music. He does some strange things, however. The Sarabande is a slow longing dance and he takes each of them as slow as possible, almost at a Largo. This gives him opportunity to sing the long lines but is somewhat disconcerting. In contrast, the Allemandes which are slightly slow, flowing but stately German dances are taken at quite a clip. That pace made the following energetic Courantes, for my taste, slightly less interesting. The sixth suite interestingly takes the Allemande at the usual pace. Rostropovitch’s cello sound is alternatively round, rich and robust. This video was obviously was made with love. Close attention has been paid to the video quality and the sound. It added to a deeper understanding of Bach for which I am most thankful.

Angela Hewitt in her Citizen article of September 6, 2004 stated that she would like to make a DVD of the Goldberg. I can imagine how wonderful this exciting work would be to see and if coupled with the type of commentary that Rostropovitch gives would certainly be invaluable.

- Bill Riley