More and more non-cellists these days claim the Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites as their own, including bassist extraordinaire Edgar Meyer. A few distinguished practitioners of the unwieldy instrument, to be sure, have assayed these on disc, yet they don’t hold a candle to Meyers’ effortless technique. Blessed with one of the suavest bow arms in the business, plus near faultless intonation, Meyer successfully retools Bach’s ringing upper-register forays within his instrument’s veiled, dynamically restricted parameters. His phrasing sings with gentle ebb and flow, and clarifies Bach’s implied polyphony without recourse to agogic tinkering. And how his booming low notes in arpegiiated chords fill the room to capacity! Meyer transposes the D Minor and G Major suites up one whole tone from the original cello keys, while taking the C Minor work one half step down to B Minor. This makes them more practical to play on the double bass. Why do the annotations list the cello keys only? It goes without saying that anyone interested in these works should have the original versions handy (Fournier/DG, Tortelier/HMV Classics, Starker/Mercury, Bylsma/Sony, and Casals/Naxos are my top recommendations). But Meyer’s admirable achievement surely will inspire budding young bass players to practice, practice, practice. I look forward to Suites Three, Four and Six.
