JS Bach: Cello Suites, BWV 1007 - 1012, 2 CD Set

Basle Cathedral was packed on two Sunday evenings in the autumn of 1962 to hear Fournier play the complete set of Bach Suites. “One man and four stirings mesmerizing more than 2000 people … an indescribable palette of colours, or contrasts … an extraordinary demonstration of thought, of mastery, of style.” Few listeners to Fournier’s Bach performances have been able to forget them; the audience before the isolated figure high on the square platform in the nave of Basle Cathedral was no exception. In the hands of this half-sceptical believer whose vocabulary was so often religious (he called the Suites “the cellist’s breviary”), an epicurean whose work was ruthlessly self-disciplined, the Suites distilled Bach’s humanity and his indestructible faith, the sensuality and the spirituality fused in sound.” – Angela Hughes, Pierre Fournier: Cellist in a Landscape with Figures (1998) Quotes taken from reviews in Basler Nachrichten (29 October 1962), Basler Volksblatt (30 October, 23 November 1962)

“Fournier's rendition of the Cello Suites displays more aristocratic, more 'refined' playing than Casal's, but its equally dedicated. It's also recorded with a fullness of tone which still makes the instrument sound almost alarmingly present.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2007 ****