Tuesday, June 17th — This concert of all six of Bach’s cello suites took place in the Thomaskirche, and this was my first time seeing the interior. I found it to be much more rustic and plain than the beautiful and fancy-looking Nikolaikirche. The patterns on the ceiling of the church were very unsettling to me (see below) and I much prefer the aesthetic of the Nikolaikirche.
Moving on to the performance, though Jean-Guihen Queyras is a cellist whom I have never heard of before, his performance was compelling and beautiful.
It was a night full of surprises — First of all, I expected to enjoy the latter three suites much more, however that was not the case. I think that he played the first three suites much better than he did the latter three — not only were they more technically accurate, but also the phrasing was more convincing for me.
A few musical choices that I want to highlight:
In the D minor (2nd) suite Menuet I, Queyras chose to pizzicato the first half, the first time he played it. The second time through he played it normally (arco). This is (at least for me) completely unheard of and I must say, I was not the biggest fan. Now, I will say that because of the nature of the concert (the continuous performance of the suites and the amazing resonance of the church), in some ways it worked and at the very least, definitely added a great deal of contrast.
Also in the D minor (2nd) suite but this time the Sarabande, I heard some strange notes near the end of the movement, the second time through. At first I thought it might be possible that he just played the wrong notes, but after discussing with Ruth, I realize now that it was a melodic choice — again, not necessarily one that I agree with, but definitely interesting.
Lastly, I was more than anything curious about Queyras’s choices regarding repeats. He took some and not others — there was no detectable pattern and seemingly no clear reason why he took some and not others. For reference, when performing the suites, it is standard and acceptable to play all the repeats, none of the repeats, or sometimes just the first or just the second repeat. However, in the case of last night’s concert, for some movements, Queyras took both repeats, some he took none, and others he took one of the two. If I had gotten to talk to him after (which I could of, but I was hungry :\ ) I definitely would have asked him about his choices. It is even a possibility that he simply decided on the spot if he would take a given repeat based on how he felt, how tired his hands were, or even if he felt like he wanted another chance at a section of the music.
This was a performance full of interesting and unexpected choices. Overall, I enjoyed the concert and learned from it — though in some cases I learned what I do not like.
