Johnny Gandelsman: a new and seductive view of Bach’s Cello Suites

Violinist Johnny Gandelsman …dancing through Bach’s Cello Suites with graceful weightlessness

Photo credit: SMB Creative

J S Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello have the quality of legend for many reasons. They contain some of the most wonderful music ever written. Their discovery by a 13-year-old Pablo Casals in a back-street Barcelona second-hand shop was so intriguing it inspired music journalist and sleuth Eric Siblin to write a whole book about it. Their subsequent renaissance, 140 years after Bach’s death, has meant they’re among the most performed and recorded music in the canon. And then there’s the influential role of Bach’s second wife Anna Magdalena Bach – the surviving manuscript was her edition.  

I’ve heard the complete Suites played live by internationally famous cellists in New Zealand three times and each occasion remains among my most intense concert memories. In 1985 Dutch Baroque cellist Anner Bylsma performed the Six Suites in Wellington in two concerts to mark the 300th anniversary of Bach’s death, quiet, unpretentious performances that miraculously revealed the implied harmonies and breath-taking counterpoint Bach achieved with a single instrument. In 2013, English cellist Colin Carr played the complete Suites in a single afternoon in Nelson Cathedral as part of the Adam Chamber Music Festival, his interpretation both virtuosic and full of flexibility and freedom. And in 2019, musician and humanitarian Yo-Yo Ma played the Suites in a completely packed Christchurch Town Hall as part of The Bach Project, his two-year, 36-concert tour to 6 continents, using this universally communicative music to demonstrate how culture connects us.

Anna Magdalena Bach

J S Bach’s second wife and faithful copyist

Carr believes Anna Magdalena is an important part of the story of the Suites. She was Bach’s faithful music copyist, and her manuscript (Bach’s original version never surfaced) embodies a spirit of spontaneity. “Her slurs and articulation,” Carr told me, “are unpredictable and it’s very empowering; you can make it up as you go along. She’s responsible for this improvisatory approach; you must surprise yourself, play as if for the first time.”

A few days ago, I heard the Six Suites again. This time, they were played by violinist Johnny Gandelsman in Wellington, as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival, to a sold-out audience in the beautiful St Mary of the Angels Church. Yes, that’s right, on violin. I confess an initial resistance to this. Surely part of the beauty of this music is the sound of the cello itself, what Siblin described as “dark, moody tones, from the instrument that most closely resembles the human voice.” Violinists have the Bach Sonatas and Partitas – shouldn’t they leave the Suites to the cello?

Surprising the audience, Gandelsman opened the concert with a little Irish folk tune, and through this simple line, with its touches of harmony, signalled something about his approach to the Suites. From there he moved seamlessly into the Prelude of the 1st Suite, playing with ease, flow and an unexpectedly fast pace. Bach’s Suites as folk music? Was Gandelsman thumbing his nose at cellists – “see how light these works can be in the hands of a violinist?”

The Allemande was similarly rapid, and he raced through the Courante with impressive facility. The slower pace for the Sarabande was more contemplative, the counterpoint clearer and then two Menuets danced by, graceful and fleeting. For the final Gigue Gandelsman became a fiddler, skipping through the music as if it were a dazzling Irish jig.  

The folk style is deliberate, as Gandelsman has made clear in interviews. In the 2nd Suite he took a little more time over the Prelude and Sarabande, and we had time to appreciate the beautiful sound this musician draws from his instrument. The Menuets and Gigue were again speedy and characterful, with a lovely artlessness in the second Menuet. In this Suite he also revealed a little more of Bach’s architectural genius.

By the 3rd Suite I was getting used to the pace, starting to relax and enjoy this new view of familiar music, and abandoning comparisons with the cello. That improvisatory feeling Carr mentioned eventually won me over completely to Gandelsman’s approach.

What ultimately convinced me was the marvellous, effortless freedom and variety he found in the music, conjuring a kind of magic. Gandelsman holds his bow some distance from the heel which contributes to a graceful weightlessness, as if the elves had slipped in to play delicious dance music.

Johnny Gandelsman playing the Bach Cello Suites in Wellington

“…conjuring a kind of magic.”

Photo credit: SMB Creative

Born in Russia to a family where both his parents and sister were professional musicians, Gandelsman’s early classical violin training in both Moscow and Israel was rigorous and demanding. After moving to the US, he spent twelve years as a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, working alongside virtuosic folk musicians, and he was one of the founders of the adventurous contemporary-focussed string quartet Brooklyn Rider. These different paths seem to converge in his approach to Bach’s Suites – his virtuosity, deep commitment to the music and inventive freedom of expression make for a deeply satisfying experience.

After a little break, and with a conspiratorial grin at the audience, Gandelsman was off again into the 4th Suite, the rippling arpeggios of the Prelude beautifully judged and, through all movements, astonishing subtlety of musicianship with tiny lingerings to reveal harmonic shifts.

To transfer the Suites from cello to violin, their keys are transposed up a fifth. As well, the 5th Suite on cello or violin requires some retuning, known as scordatura, and the 6th Suite needs a fifth string, which meant Gandelsman switched to a different instrument. Scordatura and five string violins, he explained later, are standard in folk music.

There’s a lot of evidence that Bach and other Baroque composers were relaxed about transcriptions and transpositions. A few weeks ago, in Nelson at the Adam Festival, Sergey Malov played the 6th Bach Suite on his five-stringed violoncello da spalla, convinced that Bach wrote it for that instrument. Arguments over authenticity seemed irrelevant in Gandelsman’s concert, where his interpretation of the 6th Suite told a new and seductive story that was all about the music.

The 6th Prelude was a marvellous waterfall of arpeggios, his playfulness holding the rapt attention of the audience. We were reminded that Courante means “running”, before this apparently tireless musician brought a sense of grandeur to what is perhaps the most beautiful of the six Sarabandes. Then, he took a little breath before the two Gavottes, again full of bounce and variety, and offered a final virtuosic Gigue before the audience rose to its feet with delighted applause.

Johnny Gandelsman: J S Bach Complete Cello Suites (transcribed for violin) in the Aotearoa Festival of the Arts, Wellington, March 6, 2024