J.S. Bach Cello Suites [Double Album]

Well, Rachel Podger has communed with Bach and she has a lot to say in this musical dialog with the master. (...) What we hear in this recording are her transcriptions of these pieces for violin, and her transcriptions capture all of the depth, warmth, and emotional intelligence that I've heard in the works as played by any of the great masters of the cello. (...) I am enchanted. I have returned to these time and again over the past few of months since I first heard them.

Bach’s Cello Suites are, with good reason, known and loved around the world. You will find multiple recordings and even arrangements for the guitar! But this is the first recording of the Cello Suites transcribed for the violin!

Rachel Podger loves this music, and it shows. She makes one believe that Bach could have written them with the violin in mind. Nothing is lacking here. Perhaps the violin stirs the heart in a different way occasionally, but never less so than the more familiar cello.

Channel Classics’ recordings of Rachel Podger are famous for their total believability and this one is no exception. One listen to the first suite will convince you!”

The Guardian Top 10 Best Classical CDs of the Year 2019!
"Solo artists impressed and smaller labels triumphed (...) Violinist Podger makes Bach’s suites sound as if they were written for her instrument, such is her buoyancy and agility"

(...) when it comes to joy – and few composers can express joy with Bach’s unfettered directness – Podgers reveals an entirely new and utterly delightful dimension.

(...) La violoniste Rachel Podger frappée pa rune idée de genie. (...)

Dat Podger met Bach kan lezen en schrijven weten we al van haar inmiddels twee volledige opnamen van de Sonates en Partita’s voor viool solo. Ook de cellosuites zijn voor haar gesneden koek. (...) een dubbel-cd die de Bach-liefhebber veel interessante inzichten biedt.

(...) Ihre stilistische Klasse beweist sie auch hier, technisch makellos, mit wunderbarer Geläufigkeit und wachem Sinn für ausgreifende Linien genauso wie für den Rang der immanenten Mehrstimmigkeit. Podger gestaltet in insgesamt frischen, die Stärken der wendigen Violine betonenden Tempi fein definierte Satzcharaktere. Sie tut das mit Leidenschaft und Überzeugung. Und deshalb: Ja, es werden auf diese Weise tatsächlich gültige Geigensuiten. (...)

Podger sublimeert de melancholieke en sonore zwaarte van de cello tot sprankelende uitbundigheid en laat horen dat ook Bachs cellomuziek voor velerlei uitleg vatbaar blijkt. (...)

(...) En résumé, une production quelque peu exotique mais très intéressante, servie par une personnalité dont chaque proposition est le résultat d'une étude approfondie et révèle également une totale excellence sur le plan artistique. (...)

(...) sa relecture garde une puissance autoporteuse; elle parvient très vite à conquérir les pavillons du mélomane par l'élégance des phrasés dans les passages lents, par la virtuosité dans les danses et par la qualité de la captation. Voilà qui donne de la pertinence à cette aventure plutôt osée. (...)

(...) Rachel Podger se montre parfaitement recevable – le violon étant historiquement l’instrument de la danse. (...)

L’acoustique très sobre permet d’entendre avec précision chaque coup d’archet, chaque prasé. (...) Lentes,effilées, amères souvent, ce sont les sommets d'une relecture paradoxale à bien des égards, qui fourmille de détails inattendus, et tient pourtant de l'épure. (...)

(...) tänzerischen Leichtigkeit ihres Spiels, mühelos wirkenden Akkordbrechungen, entspannten Fluss ihrer Melodiegestaltung (...)

Rachel Podger has been described as the Casals of her time so it is not surprising that, having committed superb performances of Bach’s sonatas, partitas, violin concertos and much more to disc, she should turn her attention to the cello suites, and few would argue that the results of her efforts in transcribing these works for the violin is anything other than a triumphant success. (...) thanks to the superb efforts of Producer Jonathan Freeman-Attwood and Recording engineer Jared Sacks, one’s listening room is transformed into that venue whose fine acoustic wonderfully enhances the sound of the violinist’s 1739 Pesarinius violin to glorious effect. (...)

(...) with Rachel Podger’s persuasive musicality it doesn’t take too long for the mind to adjust.

(...) Violinist Podger makes Bach’s suites sound as if they were written for her instrument, such is her buoyancy and agility. (...) Isn’t Rachel Podger a violinist? What’s she doing recording Bach’s Cello Suites? That’s the question if you see the cover before you hear this album. But do those things in reverse order, you might instead ask why you’ve never heard this Bach violin music before.

This is the most beautiful gift that listening, and violin-playing Bach lovers could wish for.

The resounding result is not only surprising, but also engrossing, wonderful and intriguing. Not only because of the way she makes her discoveries sound, but especially because of the new insight that she imparts to these notes.

A top violinist with the creative brain of a composer.

Cellosuite op viool: grandioos (...) die lichte tinmbre-karakteristiek geeft de stukken opeens iets heel mooi zwevends; alsof de muziek is ontstegen aan het aardse . (...)

Like Leonhardt and Kim Kashkashian before her, Podger adopts the Suites with bravura and the confidence that while their nature may change, their stature will not be diminished. (...) Freest in form, the Preludes undergo the happiest transformations – taken up the octave, the Prelude to the Sixth sounds more than ever like a shanty – whereas the sarabandes demand all of Podger’s bow control and even then their essential gravity is necessarily modulated with the smile of a more flowing pulse. (...)

(...) Elle en fait son miel, rendant non seulement l’expérience passionnante mais révélatrice de toute une part des six Suites : tout ce qui doit y danser fuse ici avec une prestance plus affirmée encore, le défi est donc plutôt du côté des pièces méditatives (...) tout est porté par une grâce solaire, et les textes si éloquents des six Suites semblent voler sous cet archet diseur, merveille dont vous ne pourrez vous déprendre.