Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Prelude
2. Allemande
3. Courante
4. Sarabande
5. Menuet I / Menuet II
6. Gigue
7. Prelude
8. Allemande
9. Courante
10. Sarabande
11. Menuet I / Menuet II
12. Gigue
13. Prelude
14. Allemande
15. Courante
16. Sarabande
17. Bourree I / Bourree II
18. Gigue

Disc 2:

1. Prelude
2. Allemande
3. Courante
4. Sarabande
5. Bourree I / Bourree II
6. Gigue
7. Suite No. 5 c-moll Bmv 1011: 1. Prelude
8. Suite No. 5 c-moll Bmv 1011: 2. Allemande
9. Suite No. 5 c-moll Bmv 1011: 3. Courante
10. Suite No. 5 c-moll Bmv 1011: 4. Sarabande
11. Suite No. 5 c-moll Bmv 1011: 5. Gavotte 1 - 2
12. Suite No. 5 c-moll Bmv 1011: 6. Gigue
13. Prelude
14. Allemande
15. Courante
16. Sarabande
17. Gavotte I / Gavotte II
18. Gigue

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68509 in Music
• Released on: 1997-02-11
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.com
Elegance is the quality in Pierre Fournier's playing that makes the first and, ultimately, the most lasting impression. He finds great depth in the suites, but he shows constant awareness that he is playing mostly dance music (usually, and importantly, French dance music), that joy is its most important underlying emotion and that graceful movement and rhythmic fluency are essential. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Fournier Bach suites still the best
I recently did a comparative listening of the Fournier Bach suites--one of the first pieces of cello music I owned after taking up cello in fourth grade!--with recent recordings by Ma and Rostropovich. I was delighted to find that my old emotional memories of the Fournier were accurate--it is completely musical from end to end, and the sound is gorgeous. The fifth and sixth suites, in particular, are in a class by themselves. The Sarabande to Suite 6 is among the most beautiful cuts of cello music ever recorded. More surprising was the fact that the sound and production quality were also the best of the lot when we listened on studio monitors. Very nice room sound, and good mastering work. We also had the distinct impression that mikes and mike placements were chosen for each movement (e.g., the ambient sound for the heavy prelude to Suite 5 is different from that of the high and fast-moving Gigue to Suite 6.) If you want one recording of the Bach suites, this is the one to get.

'comparaison non comparaison'!
Mr. McLellan's brief review for Amazon is dead on! Pierre Fournier's by now classic recording of the Bach Suites remains unchallenged, and the joy of the Kapellmeister is its everlasting motive! There simply is no rival to this rendition of these spiritual classics. The only other claimant on the horizon would be the version by Janos Starker; yet for all of Starker's understanding of Bach's invigorated masterpieces, I don't believe his conception is as cultured or his over-arching execution as fine as that of Fournier. The great assuredness of the Prelude of the first Suite is sweetened by Fournier's rich thought, and his handling of the Prelude of the sixth Suite, with its climbing 1-3-1-5-1-8 pattern, is so humanly drawn- like an illuminated letter in a Book of Hours! -well, as the French say, comparison is no comparison! The fifth Suite with its famous Sarabande hangs like a late afternoon in Sainte-Chapelle! This is art ineffacable and indispensable. Forget Ma's interpretation- he plays it like a schoolboy; Rostropovich is inconstant; Casals ends by offering more Casals than Bach; Heinrich Schiff goes deep but cannot be said to have wagered with Time itself in essaying these Suites - there is impatience in his probing version. Maisky, whose playing is always informed and beautiful, often keeps himself from the very joy that wings from Fournier's body and bow! Fournier doesn't perform, he holds court; and an audience with his Sebastian Bach is more rewarding by leagues than mere regal favor. Listen and be ennobled; here is art beholden to the gods.

Fantastic Cello Playing and Great Music
This is one of the greatest albums of cello music ever made. Fournier knows this music inside and out, and he probes the depths for what is hidden in these suites. Furthermore, Fournier's sound and technique are almost without peer. This album and the ones by Casals could be taken as the absolute references for these works. The recorded sound is superb, especially in this reissue.