Peter Gregson Recomposes Bach's Cello Suites
One might view the act of re-composition as the greatest form of flattery, or, on the other side of the coin, as a lazy attempt at composition.
I kept thinking of Max Richter listening to this album; he re-composed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and I thought this was going to be the same type of thing, but Peter Gregson, the cellist featured in this album, not only is the soloist but also the re-arranger. While there are parts of Richter’s recomposition that I liked, it really stuck to the original a little too closely. This edition, here of Bach’s six suites for solo cello, for me does a better job with my own expectations for what a recomposition should be.
It should be new, but reminiscent of the original. An example I’ve wrote of before was Lukas Foss’s Phorion which was an original work that references the opening of Bach’s last violin partita. In the light of Richter and now Gregson, perhaps the better definition of that piece is a recomposition, too. And for me, it passes the test, it takes the old and makes it something completely new, especially with the help of Berrnstein. It’s a notable work for the time it was written and recorded, when technology was still a bit limited to what we have today.
Gregson is a good cellist, and it should be stated at the start that he sounds good alongside the other musicians. His recomposition puts the solo cello up front but includes some other timbres with a small chamber ensemble behind him, including non-strings.
His methodology is to take portions of the lines originally written for the single instrument and to kind of deconstruct them, using many times, original harmonies, many times slowed down. What would have been foreign to Bach would be the total eradication of the sense of dance that provides the framework for almost every movement across the six suites. And while Bach put all the focus on the solo instrument, with Gregson’s re-write, there are times the cello part almost seems trivial. We have to step back and listen to the whole work, all the instruments, and how they’re adding to the sound, the harmonies, and the shift of those harmonies over time.
One of my favorite movements from the suites is the 2nd’s Sarabande. I’ve played the piece several times and it just speaks to me. Gregson slows the piece down, which is cool at the start, because we can still hear the original, or enough to recognize from the original. The harmonic language I think is appropriate, easy enough for almost anyone to find interest in (no atonal fancies are taken). Yet, the technique spread across the whole movement starts to tire after a bit. It’s but one example where I think Gregson’s compositional ideas might have been stretched further, not allowing himself to be a slave to the A/B structure of so many of the dances.
My other want was more virtuosity from the cello. If you’re familiar enough with, say, Yo-Yo Ma pushing tempo on one of the Gigues, say, you realize there’s an athletic quality to the music for the cellist. In the case of the 2nd suite, the gigue line is reproduced over a new backdrop, and it finally does pick up in energy, but never really gets to compete with the energy of the original. Hearing the same material, again, with a repeat, again, was a let down.
All that said, I like Gregson’s ideas and listening to his version of Bach’s suites was fun because behind all the new timbres, harmonies, new orchestrations were lurking some familiar melodic material that is presented in creative, stylish ways. I tend to think of creative pursuits like music making and composition as always malleable systems. It would be my hope that Gregson continues to develop these musical ideas based on Bach’s cello suites over time. Some of these tracks are successful and are worth a listen, even for my readers who may dismiss the idea of recomposed Bach on modern cello as heresy.
The opening harmonies to the Third suite’s Allemande is such an example worth a listen: the opening harmonic sequence which gets built upon uses simple enough chords, but it’s a progression Bach would never have used. To then take the melodic material and make it work along this new harmonic ostinato is clever. The following Courante uses echo techniques which manages to keep the original clear enough in our heads while creating a rather clever atmospheric result. It should be noted that echoes were used in Baroque music as a real technique, so re-engineering an old technique carries with it here some tongue-in-cheek humor.
When the synthesizers come out I have mixed feelings; I’m not against synthesizers in general. To the modern composer (or recomposer), they certainly provide an easy way to enhance the overall sound palette of an otherwise small ensemble. Richter also uses synths to enhance his ensembles as well. When they appear to close the Fifth suite, they are interesting; but the overall effect feels like a window dressing. Hearing the punchy bass from the earlier Gavottes I thought was a more interesting use of that sound and texture. The gigue’s presentation of the original material over that otherwise simple introduction having me want for more.
The Sixth suite is featured in DG’s marketing for the album. The opening Prelude is a beautifully written texture and the re-writing of the material in the background is cool. The same suite’s Courante reminded me of, say, Steve Reich. The illusion of Reich’s style doesn’t stay around, as Gregson has more material to introduce into the movement. Taking a full-on minimalist approach might have been interesting, but the movement works well, I think, because Gregson allows himself to be heard as a soloist in this one without support from other musicians.
I was introduced to the album by way of the last movement, the Sixth’s Gigue. It’s yet another example of some really great ideas; stylistically he seems to be really channeling his inner-Richter. The overall effect is beautiful, but that repetition of that simple line, I wish, would have been expanded as the movement unfolded to give more interesting and virtuosic material to the soloist.
It’s easy to be a critic, and while I often love to delve into new works with a critical eye, don’t let my vision for improvements distract from what’s otherwise a great album worth discovering for someone already familiar with Bach’s Cello Suites. I read a comment by someone on YouTube that suggested that Bach would have loved this; I think it’s worth noting Bach’s compositional style, heavy on counterpoint, likely would have been disappointed with that technique playing an important role here; nevertheless, I can’t imagine any composer finding fault with musicians after 300 years not only playing their music, but reinventing it for modern times. Gregson’s solutions will appeal to a great many of people—maybe those who like Max Richter’s film scores—and DG have managed to do a great mixing job and I am glad Gregson’s own instrument is presented clearly without a lot of fake acoustical treatment to the sound.
Great headphone material for contemplation….
