CHARLOTTE, NC – The complete plays of John Millington Synge at the Edinburgh International Festival were a rare and epical event. So were Béla Bartok’s complete string quartets at Aspen, both parts of Angels in America on Broadway, a complete Richard Wagner Ring Cycle in Toronto, and all of Beethoven’s piano sonatas at the Savannah Music Festival – all these events, or clusters of events, were unforgettable. Yet it was a bit startling when Guy Fishman, about two-thirds into his rendition of Bach’s complete Cello Suites, presented by Bach Akademie Charlotte at the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church, put what we were witnessing in fresh perspective. He observed that Johann himself would have been astonished to learn that these intimate solo works would someday be gathered together for a marathon public performance on the same afternoon and evening. Bartok, Synge, and maybe even Beethoven can be presumed innocent of such intentions or ambitions.
Guy Fishman performing Bach’s Cello Suites. Photo credit: Perry Tannenbaum
Aside from Cello Suite I, the shortest of the six, Fishman played the seven-part Suites in numerical order, leaving the most famous of the Suites for last. This little shuffle not only balanced the playing times of the afternoon and evening concerts at Holy Comforter, it provided a graceful landing at the finish, for Suite VI is by far the longest, most adventurous, and free-style of the pieces, while Suite I is almost encore-sized by comparison as well as the most beloved. If you only attended the evening session, your impression of the Suites’ variety and Fishman’s mastery of them might have been a bit skewed. Fishman explained how, in effect, three different cellos would be put into service. Suite V utilized Fishman’s customary 1704 Baroque cello (predating Bach’s composition by more than a decade), but with the A-string tuned down, and Suite VI would be played on a slightly shorter five-stringed cello before Fishman returned with his usual instrument in its customary tuning. That last piece on the evening program would also be the first that Fishman would perform by heart, like all three of the pieces played earlier in the day on his conventionally-tuned cello.
Whether you were familiar with the landmark Pablo Casals recordings or the later, more mellifluous Mstislav Rostropovich and Janos Starker versions, the sound of Fishman’s authentic cello blooming through the Holy Comforter sanctuary would have added a new level of enjoyment from the first notes of Suite II’s Prélude. Among the classic recordings, Starker’s comes closest to replicating the richness that could be heard this past weekend, slightly more alluring than Pierre Fournier’s sound. As for pacing and dynamics, Fishman’s swiftness and power in the first two movements of Suite III were a bit of a shock. More recent and sonically luscious versions by Pieter Wispelwey and Stephen Isserlis will give you an idea of how magnificently Fishman attacked the Prélude and the ensuing Allemande, though Wispelwey offers a better approximation of the exciting jauntiness Fishman brought to the latter section. Neither of these recordings, however, can bring a smile to my face with the Courante the way that Fishman’s gracious slowdown did – even Alisa Weilerstein, whose complete set is among the very longest, plays this Courante at a gallop. Here Fishman hearkened back to Casals, Rostropovich, and Starker in projecting the classic essence of Bach.
Guy Fishman performing Bach’s Cello Suites. Photo credit: Perry Tannenbaum
Statelier than Suite II’s opening, the Suite IV Prélude was arguably the dramatic highlight of the afternoon session, crowned with cadenza brio, though Fishman made the paired Gavottes an absolute delight toward the end. With all the instrumental artillery it mustered, the evening session did seem to deliver a more serendipitous lineup for primetime. All of Fishman’s tempos struck me as natural and in-the-pocket. The boldest departures came in the Courante movements, where Fishman, the principal cellist at the Handel and Haydn Society, attacked with a special zest. In Suite V particularly, only the Wispelwey and Casals recordings come close to Fishman’s ferocity. But in Suite VI, my favorite, Fishman’s Courante sounded absolutely unique to me, swift and infectiously emphatic while finding a festive quality to the music that nobody else on record seems to suspect. Some of this uniqueness my be traced to the authentic five-string instrument Fishman played, but not all.
Maybe the classical world has slept on the advantages of playing Suite VI on a lighter five-string cello, for Fishman’s reading of the opening Prélude was perhaps even more singular in its lightheartedness. Discarding the call-and-response vein first espoused by Rostropovich and then pounced upon by Mischa Maisky, both of whom played repeated phrases loudly then softly, Fishman brought the rhythmic swirls in Bach’s theme to the fore, giving the whole movement a freshly folksy flavor. By the time Fishman reached the concluding Gigue, I’d switched my camera from stills to cinema, just so I could preserve the special zest, verve, and sound that Fishman was delivering.
Guy Fishman performing Bach’s Cello Suites. Photo credit: Perry Tannenbaum
Yet the most magical, mystical, and touching moments of Fishman’s performance weren’t his most unique. Starker, Maisky, and Weilerstein have all found these qualities in the exquisitely lyrical Sarabande of Suite V. What stood for me at Holy Comforter Episcopal was the opportunity of hearing all this in live performance in a place of meditation and worship. We could see Fishman reveling and losing himself in this experience along with the rest of us.
