Marrow: The 6 Suites For Solo Cello by J.S. Bach

Can one have too many different performance of the Suites for Solo Cello? Not when they are performed and recorded as nicely as these.

I've been listening to several different recordings by Icelandic cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir and I've found her to be a most engaging artist. These performances of the Bach Suites are a somewhat different musical setting than in which I've been used to hearing her. Most of her other recordings have been music of contemporary composers. This perhaps explains why I have been immediately taken by her approach to these classic Bach pieces—she brings a delightful directness and clarity in her approach. Direct, succinct, but highly communicative. She doesn't tie herself into endless repeats but plays the pieces "straight through" to achieve a delightful flow and immediacy with the music.

The sound quality is exemplary. Recorded by Daniel Shore in the Sono Luminus recording studio located in rural Boyce, Virginia, in a nearly 110 year old former Emmanuel Episcopal Chapel boasting a 25 foot vaulted wood ceiling over a 35' x 65' original heart pine floor, providing a beautiful natural acoustic. Daniel Shore achieves his usual clarity, and exceptionally natural sound, with this recording—always a pleasure hearing his work!

This is a pandemic-born project. Cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir is mostly known for playing contemporary music, but she turned to Bach's Suites for Solo Cello during the months of enforced isolation.

Her contemporary music background shows in the hard edge of her playing. Another factor shaping her interpretation is that she began to perceive an individual character for each suite: "... an arch started to emerge, a true hero's journey: starting with the innocent 1st Suite in G major, the first taste of bitter disappointment in the D minor 2nd Suite, a renewed optimism in the 3rd Suite in C major, the bold and brash 4th Suite in E flat major, the dark tragedy of the 5th Suite in C minor, and finally, the glorious redemption of the 6th Suite in D major."

She omits all of the repeats to bring out this trajectory. It is unlikely that this concept would have made a lot of sense to Bach, but it does produce an unusual set of suites, emotive without being Romantic in the old-style sense. Sample some of the Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012, which does achieve a kind of transcendent quality in Thorsteinsdóttir's hands.

Another strong point is the sound from the Sono Luminus studios in Virginia. It gives great immediacy to the cellist and fits well with her overall conception of the music. The title "Marrow" comes from an Icelandic expression meaning "the marrow of the matter," which, for Thorsteinsdóttir, characterizes these suites. She makes a good case for her deep involvement with them and her belief in her unorthodox readings.