Bach: Suites for Violoncello Solo.

This clutch of Bach recordings covers many facets of the composer's output in performances which, with one exception, are likely to satisfy most collectors. To begin with the exception, Anneke Uittenbosch's playing of Book 2 of the |48' on two well filled Globe discs disappoints on two counts: first, because the placing of the microphones forces us to listen with our heads inside the lid of the harpsichord, as it were, which is not the best place from which to appreciate the quality of what seems a fine reproduction instrument by Joel Katzman; and second, because of Uittenbosch's idiosyncratic, not to say quirky, interpretation of Bach's rhythms. I was inclined to attribute the unevenness of her playing of the first two preludes to something in the sources, or perhaps to the use of paired fingerings; but neither explanation, nor an attempt to apply French inegales (the inequality inclines, in any case, towards Lombardy rather than France), could possibly account for the generally lumpy playing elsewhere or for the omission of a vital quaver rest in the second bar of the A minor fugue. The main theme of the D major prelude sounds quite tipsy, while the F major fugue subject is …