The range of interpretive choices facing performers of Bach's Suites for solo cello, BWV 1007-1012, is vast. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, explaining her decision to retract an earlier promise not to play the pieces until she was older, says that the suites "present the player with infinite possibilities." Weilerstein has achieved an impressive set, one that stands apart from the hundreds of others available, yet gives the listener the feeling that she might have done it differently the next day. In general, Weilerstein's ...
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The range of interpretive choices facing performers of Bach's Suites for solo cello, BWV 1007-1012, is vast. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, explaining her decision to retract an earlier promise not to play the pieces until she was older, says that the suites "present the player with infinite possibilities." Weilerstein has achieved an impressive set, one that stands apart from the hundreds of others available, yet gives the listener the feeling that she might have done it differently the next day. In general, Weilerstein's approach is deliberate and detailed, more reminiscent of Mstislav Rostropovich than of the members of her own family with whom she plays chamber music. Her Sarabandes are extraordinary, very slow (a lot of the high time total is racked up here) without being emotionally overwrought: they are deeply meditative. Weilerstein avoids the dance rhythms for the most part, but sometimes, when they serve her purposes, they show up, and the surfaces are strikingly variegated. She plays the suites...
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