SUITE SUCCESS

posted by James Reel

    My cover story for the current issue of Strings magazine is all about Bach’s suites for solo cello. I myself don’t have much to say on the subject; I left that to the cellists I interviewed: Yo-Yo Ma, Jian Wang, Maria Kliegel and Suren Bagratuni, with some comments cribbed from Janos Starker’s liner notes for one of his recordings. (He didn’t want to be interviewed about Bach yet again, and told me to lift something he’d already written during the 60-some years he’s been involved with Bach.) The editor said he was quite pleased with the way this piece turned out (even though I delivered it six months late), and no wonder. It’s exactly what he asked me to do in the first place. I put the same set of questions, most of them suggested by the editor, to each of the cellists, extracted the most colorful answers, added a few transitions and a little background information, and there you have it. More like typing than music journalism, really; the interviewees did all the work. You can find out what they have to say about Bach if you follow this link.