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Mount Vernon Blues
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Bella Morte
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Four Tenors
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The Blood Brothers
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The Post
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Joe McPhee/William Parker/ Harold Smith
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February 13-19, 2003

music

Review: Anner Bylsma

by Peter Burwasser

Performances of the solo cello music of Bach are far less common than of the solo violin music, performances on a baroque instrument rarer still. And so, the Dutch master Anner Bylsma's recital of three of the Suites for solo cello Friday night at the Art Museum was a rather exotic event. For those of us weaned on this magnificent music as played on modern cello, Bylsma's sound was, at first, difficult to connect to. The newer instrument is more brilliant, and allows for far greater dynamic contrast.

The trade-off, fully exploited by Bylsma, is a much finer gradation of color and timbre, and, because of the reduced tension of the natural strings both on the cello and on the bow, greater agility. And the baroque sound seems closer to nature. You hear the very grain of the wood. And it should go without saying that this is the cello sound that the composer would have had in mind.

None of these technical considerations would be noteworthy had they not been conveyed by the artistry of Bylsma. He has played this music for all of his extensive career, and so his playing is deeply internalized. Bylsma plays with striking individuality, chiefly characterized by a rhythmic leeway that lends a jazzy, improvisatory character to much of the music, especially in the fast movements. Not all of this risk-taking paid off, as in the rushed and awkward gigue in the Suite No. 1. But elsewhere, as when Bylsma's gossamer tone sang forth in the prelude of No. 4, the music sounded like a living, breathing piece of poetry.

A great benefit of Bylsma's intense familiarity with these scores is his sense of how to make connections. With careful listening, one could hear a note-to-note contour, and upon subsequent reflection, movement-to-movement connections that made each of the three Suites he played emerge as complete entities. On a modern instrument, the Suite No. 5 usually comes across as a craggy and even forbidding work, but was here presented with both joy and wisdom. The plangent Sarabande emerged as the spiritual heart around which this small universe revolves.

It is to Bylsma's greatest credit that, at the end of this evening, we were struck mainly by the glory of Bach. The eternal wonder of this music, as richly humanistic as the words of Shakespeare, and as timeless, is how powerfully intact the essential elements remain, regardless of the type of instrument or the manner of the performer. In the case of Anner Bylsma, the artist engages the music with intelligence and personality, but with a humility that allows the genius of the composer to shine forth like a welcoming beacon.