The complete Suites for Solo Cello by Bach, in the hands of lutenist/theorbo player Hopkinson Smith. This double album does restorative justice to a complete edition that up to now was split into two albums, appearing separately between 1981 (Astrée) and 2013 (Naive classique). It provides an opportunity to fully appreciate the art of Hopkinson Smith, this master of Renaissance and Baroque plucked string instruments, a performer and pedagogue who is honoured and respected by generations of early music practitioners. It also offers the chance of surveying in full Bach’s six Suites for Solo Cello (BWV 1007-1012) in the new, colourful light of their arrangement for lute and theorbo.
Being on intimate terms with Bach’s music, having studied it for several decades, Hopkinson Smith is the perfect mediator of these dance movements, by turns virtuoso and contemplative, constantly highlighting the polyphonic possibilities of the solo cello, somehow intensified by the stirring sound of the plucked strings, while also bringing out the music’s energetic expressiveness and lyricism. It all emerges so naturally under his masterly hands, which have also crafted five of the six transcriptions – the Suite BWV 1011 arrangement being by Bach’s own work.
‘From the very first notes, one is struck by the sheer completeness of the performance’, wrote Classica in March 2013, awarding a "Choc" distinction to the first three Suites. "The choice of keys, the ornamentation, the addition of the bass voices, the rhythmic flexibility, and the way the tempi are adapted to suit the resonance of the instrument: it has all been carefully throught through so as to reach the heart of Bach’s music". This tour de force has made these six works into benchmark recordings without equal, now integrated in this re-issue. © naive classique