 Quel étrange souhait venant de la part d’un éditeur aussi artiste que Supraphon : Sasa Vectomov s’était fait depuis vingt ans une sacrée réputation à Prague en interprétant chaque année les Suites de Bach. Son père, premier violoncelle de la Philharmonie Tchèque, les lui avait montrées dès que l’adolescent fut en mesure de les jouer, il n’avait plus cessé depuis. À l’été 1984 Supraphon lui demanda finalement d’enregistrer le cahier dans la salle d’orgue du Rudolfinum, mais à la condition que les six Suites tinrent sur deux microsillons. Il fallait abandonner toutes les reprises. Vectomov n’hésita pas, dessinant plus encore les danses et les récits qui dans ce bref imposé filaient avec un surplus de vie. La sonorité légendaire, si lyrique, si pleine de celui qui fut le plus grand violoncelliste tchèque de sa génération, éclate dans cette gravure si singulière, chantant avec une générosité, une ardeur que l’on entendait déjà dans son insurpassée gravure du Deuxième Concerto de Martinu. Mais ce chant si dense sait aussi élever les allemandes et les sarabandes vers une dimension supplémentaire où la spiritualité d’un Casals semble s’inviter : cet archet parle comme celui du catalan, mais sans toute sa rugosité, le timbre uni de grande viole du Gagliano 1712 qu’il aura choisi explicitement pour cet enregistrement, si beau, l’en garde. (Discophilia - Artalinna.com) (Jean-Charles Hoffelé) Bach could hardly have imagined how popular his cycle of Six Suites for Cello Solo would become nearly 300 years after he finished writing them in Cöthen. There are more than 200 existing historical and contemporary recordings of “informed” and “modern” interpretations – that tells it all. The music makes extraordinary demands on players’ technical and interpretive ability and their overall comprehension. In the suites, Bach managed to create music that is highly innovative (it is worth noting that the cello was still developing at the time), and yet he retained his stylistic purity and comprehensibility. While these are formally dance suites, the architecture of some of them is more like that of a cathedral, in part thanks to the wealth of contrapuntal writing. They are a great challenge for everyone who has mastered the cello, Saša Vectomov included. His first teacher was his father (he studied in Paris with Piatigorsky and Fournier and with Casals’s assistant Alexanian). The playing of the young Vectomov was then strongly influenced by Rostropovich’s teacher Semyon Kozolupov at the Moscow Conservatoire and by André Navarra in Italy. Besides his solo career, he also excelled at playing chamber music (Czech Trio, City of Prague Quartet) and was an equally wonderful teacher. For the recording of the Bach suites that he made in Prague at the Rudolfinum in the summer of 1984, he prepared himself for several years. In 1980, for example, he played the whole cycle from memory at a single concert. His recording can be characterised as having unmistakable beauty of tone, perfect intonation, and brilliant technique, but above all it is the deep comprehension of the “text” and the immediacy of the musicianship that make this recording something timeless and exceptional.
|
Catalog 
