Bach, J S: Cello Suites Nos. 1-6, BWV1007-1012 (solo, unaccompanied)

“…Sigiswald Kuijken… now brings us the Cello Suites on the violoncello da spalla, or shoulder-cello. The sound, perhaps not surprisingly, sits somewhere between those of the cello and the viola, achieving a happy combination of the former's depth of tone and the latter's melodic lucidity. There must be few players who start their relationship with these wonderful pieces so late in life, and there is much wisdom and fine Baroque sensibility on show here; Kuijken's secure momentum and gentle grasp of the music's dance rhythms are something any player could learn from. However much it may look like an eccentric experiment, this questing release from one of the great figures of the period revival is one of major interest.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2009

“Tortelier echoed Casals, saying 'First comes Bach - then all the others'. His edition is festooned with symbols coolly analysing every bow-stroke, but their synthesis in his playing is passionate and defies changing fashions. Essential listening.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2009 *****

“Queyras is master of his instrument. Intonation is well-nigh impeccable, including meeting Bach's demands of a five-string cello on a normal four-strong instrument… He's an exciting player. He sustains harmonic bass-notes though, most notably in the first Prelude where the superb acoustic of a church in Sulzberg in southern Germany allows the harmony to build up dramatically.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2008 *****

“In a crowded field, Queyras has absorbing and original things to say about these great works and his set can be very warmly recommended.” International Record Review

“A recording of all six of Bach's suites by the choice young cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras is in the offing from the Harmonia Mundi label, so it was particularly opportune to have a foretaste of his approach in this lunchtime recital… Queyras's playing has a magnetic quality and a spectrum of nuances that, in these solo circumstances, generated interpretations of great subtlety, sensibility and radiance… There was perhaps no more perfect antidote to the Bank Holiday tumult of Oxford Street than Queyras's Bach suite. …There was no hint of ostentation or overstatement in any of this, but only an affecting naturalness from a musician who has clearly thought deeply about the music and the emotional range it conveys.” The Times

“A completely new and inspiring benchmark for this unique tour de force” BBC Music Magazine, 1st June 2007

“the stuff of legend” The Independent (on Steven Isserlis)

“Isserlis is a passionate musician, but never thoughtless or frivolous, and the delicacy of his responses on this wonderful set sometimes take the breath away. If your soul fails to quiver in the quiet depths of the fifth suite’s sarabande, then you must be a robot in disguise. Yet he’s not on his knees always worshipping: time and again Isserlis asserts the music’s dance roots, whether through his thrusting accents or by sweeping through with a winning lilt … Just listen to Isserlis, Bach and your heart, and the music that never dies” The Times

“This is an outstanding recording of some of the greatest works of classical music and a disc that every music-lover should own” Classic FM Magazine

“This is the most wondeful cello-playing, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music, as well as the most musically alert and vivid … Isserlis’s Bach is a major entrant into an already highly distinguished field, and a disc many will want to return to again and again” Gramophone Magazine

“…this… the most wonderful cello-playing, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music, as well as the most musically alert and vivid. …few will fail to be charmed by Isserlis's sweetly singing tone, his perfectly voiced chords and superb control of articulation and dynamic - the way the final chord of the First Prélude dies away is spellbinding.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2007

1982 GRAMMY® AWARD WINNER for best classical performance