155 Days With Bach and Me

I love reading reviews on Amazon. Some are to be taken extremely seriously. Some are so incoherent that they’d be laughable if they were meant to be a joke.

I also love discovering rare, hard-to-find music. Today’s music certainly qualifies. You’ll see why in a moment.

One of the reviews that fall into the former category is one from Mr. Get Real, who wrote — in great detail — about Pablo Casals’ performance of Bach’s Cello Suites, answering the question “Which version is better — the remastered edition issued by EMI? Or the edition issued by Opus Kura?”

The issue at stake is the quality of the recording, not the performances. Pablo Casals (1876-1973), by all accounts one of the greatest cellists of all time, recorded Bach’s Cello Suites between 1936 and 1939. The music was pressed on 78 rpm vinyl records, from which the CDs in question were made.

For the record, Mr. Get Real prefers the Opus Kura edition hands down.

Whichever edition you get, expect a lot of hiss and surface noise. That can’t be removed without also removing much of the actual music.

Still, it’s a thrill to be able to hear (some would say experience) a musician so highly regarded some 75 years after the music was recorded. I often wonder what performers like tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) or opera singer

I like how the person who uploaded the Starkweather video put the sheet music to the left of the cellist so you could actually see the music that you hear being played. Clever.

By the way, I have nothing against slow Classical music. However, it usually does not keep my mind engaged. So I mentally wander off after a few moments. But Suite No. 4 in E flat major pleased me with every movement. For whatever that’s worth. It’s not like I’m some genius Bach scholar or world-class musician. I just know what I like.

Here are the compositions on today’s CD:
BWV 1008
BWV 1010
BWV 1012

Some people estimate these were composed pre 1720. But I don’t think anyone knows for sure. I’ve seen dates (for BWV 1012) range up to 1725. If they were composed around 1720, Bach was 35. Or so. If the date was closer to 1725, Bach was 40.

In case you were wondering, I bought both editions of Pablo Casals’ performances, EMI and Opus Kura. I’ll see if Mr. Get Real knows what he’s talking about.