Centuries before Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar inaugurated the World Music “crossover” craze, none other than J.S. Bach encountered an anonymous Indian tabla virtuoso traveling through Leipzig as part of an outfit called “Klaus von Strichberg’s Oriental Circus.” The result was a path-breaking series of six suites for solo cello plus tabla. Unfortunately, Bach’s original manuscript was long thought lost, and with it the went the original tabla part. Its rediscovery in time for this new recording of the suites by Steven Isserlis is cause for celebration, even if it might have been better to engage the services of a professional percussionist rather than having Isserlis himself overdub Bach’s enthusiastically written tabla counterpoints.
That is the review I wish I could have written (sort of), for unfortunately what sounds like the long-lost tabla part consists in fact of Steven “Steel Fingers” Isserlis whacking the fingerboard of his cello like a construction worker with a jackhammer. Why on earth the engineers recorded him so closely, or didn’t say something, or how Isserlis permitted such a technically challenged production to be released at all, remains a sad mystery made all the more so because the playing as such is very good. I love Isserlis’ rollicking attack on the Gigues, full of life and joy and somehow indefinably “English” in their robust rhythmic vitality. The Sarabandes, particularly those of the Second and Sixth Suites, are absolutely gorgeous, intensely lyrical and free, and mercifully a bit less bothered by percussive intrusions. There are many more wonderful interpretive ideas besides throughout the six works, all vitiated by that damnable clicking and rattling.
Isserlis also provides three different version of the Prelude from Suite No. 1 as a bonus, as well as an encore in the form of a Casals favorite, the Catalan folksong The Song of the Birds. This, no doubt, will be a cue for some of my colleagues across the Big Pond to roll out a litany of praise, starting with “Not since Casals…etc, etc.” Quite honestly, had this been a competently produced set I would have no problem giving it a very strong recommendation. Isserlis is a marvelous cellist by any definition, and he’s obviously given the interpretive issues much productive thought. That’s why I am shocked by the carelessness of all concerned, and as far as the rating goes it’s very difficult to decide how to apportion the blame between the artist and his producers. Some listeners may not be bothered by Isserlis’ obstinate digital (as in “fingers”) drumbeats, but I can’t imagine that there are many, even in England. My God, what a shame!
