Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN8-8YAHtwsHiRes album:
https://www.prostudiomasters.com/album/page/12717Booklet:
http://vivatmusic.com/booklets/VIVAT107-Bach-The-Six-Cello-Suites-booklet.pdf"Renowned Dutch cellist Viola de Hoog presents an outstanding recording of the greatest of all solo cello masterworks, Johann Sebastian Bach’s extraordinary Six Suites for Solo Cello. Unique in the solo repertoire, Bach’s six suites represent the musical summit for all cellists. For three decades, period instrument cellist Viola de Hoog has straddled at the highest international level the worlds of both period instrument performance – playing as soloist, principal cellist and guest principal with many of the world’s greatest historic instrument orchestras including Concerto Köln, Netherlands Bach Society, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Tafelmusik Toronto, Anima Aeterna and currently The King’s Consort – and also the ‘modern’ world, playing cello for twenty years in the world-famous Schönberg Quartet. For this recording, Viola de Hoog plays a remarkable baroque cello from 1750 by the great Italian maker, Giovanni Battista Guadagnini – an instrument perfect for Bach’s music. For the sixth suite, which demands a five-string cello, she plays an equally rare Bohemian instrument dating from the late 18th century, whose unusually large size results in a rich sonority rarely heard in this unusual variant of the cello family.
Recorded by distinguished engineer Adriaan Verstijnen in the perfect acoustic of the Oude Dorpskerk, Bunnik – a historic Dutch church near Utrecht dating back to the twelfth century which has hosted many fine period instrument recordings – this recording is deeply musical yet historically faithful, thoughtful yet inspired. Extensive presentation includes 48 page booklet with authoritative liner note in four languages (English, Dutch, French & German) by renowned Bach expert Prof. Greta Haenen, together with session photographs, and reproductions from Anna Magdalena Bach’s manuscript".
From The Gramophone's Duncan Druce:
Viola de Hoog was the cellist of the Schoenberg Quartet. However, alongside her affinity with the music of the Second Viennese School, she has developed all the requirements of technique and stylistic sensitivity to be a formidable player of the Baroque form of her instrument. This issue is noteworthy for its fine sound and for the elegance and finesse of the playing. De Hoog has a light touch when playing chords: in the Allemande of the Sixth Suite she sketches in the harmony while allowing the listener to concentrate on the beautiful, ornamented melodic line. Another recurring attribute is her poised vigour in the quicker dances, for instance the lively Courantes of the first three Suites. In the corresponding movement of the Fifth Suite, however, her search for liveliness leads to a hurried tempo; I feel that this Courante, closer to the French manner of Couperin, demands a more relaxed approach. And I’m not entirely convinced by the different tempi adopted for the pairs of minuets in the first two Suites. But elsewhere de Hoog, even at her most individual, is entirely convincing. This is certainly the case with her account of the Prelude to the First Suite – spacious and meditative, with a pervasive expressive rubato.
The other preludes similarly have a distinct character. I especially enjoyed the start of the Fourth Suite which, with its awkward leaps, can sound uncomfortable but here sounds entirely suave and natural. The Sixth Suite’s Prelude, too, is pervaded by a joyful, bouncy sense of rhythm. Viola de Hoog’s interpretations place her midway between two other distinguished Baroque cello accounts. Jaap ter Linden is a very fluent player but his smoother style results in performances that appear less lively and imaginative than de Hoog’s, and his heavier playing of chords tends to interrupt the music’s flow. Roel Dieltiens’s performances adopt a more forceful, often virtuoso manner, with more detached and staccato playing, and sharper characterisation. That is a most striking issue but I imagine many listeners will prefer Viola de Hoog’s gentler approach, as well as the more spacious recording and emollient tone.
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