At The Top Of His Powers

By TERRY TEACHOUT

Whatever the merits of the six films that make up Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach, the two-CD sound-track album (Sony Classical), on which Ma plays the Bach cello suites without benefit of ice dancers, landscape artists or snappy one-liners from choreographer Mark Morris, is a major musical achievement. Ma's second take on the Bach suites is also a distinct improvement on the version he recorded at the age of 26 (which is still available on Sony). His playing has grown deeper and more forceful in recent years, and these warmly romantic performances faithfully reflect that change: the interpretations are far more personal in tone, the sense of fantasy much richer.

It's natural to wonder how Ma stacks up next to his most celebrated predecessors, Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich (both of whose complete sets are currently available on EMI). Casals' classic performances, originally recorded between 1936 and 1939, have a sober grandeur that continues to seize and hold the ear six decades later; the Rostropovich set, recorded in 1991, is a larger-than-life exercise in musical oratory that bears the same relationship to "normal" cello playing that one of Chuck Close's jumbo portraits does to a black-and-white snapshot. Ma's strong, sensitive playing falls somewhere between these two expressive poles, but it isn't a matter of splitting the difference: each set is a priceless document.

Just what effect, if any, did the filming of Inspired by Bach have on Ma's interpretations? You'd have to ask him. But anyone who watches Falling Down Stairs, the film on the C-major suite, can see how enthusiastically the cellist responds to Morris' fanciful choreography and hear how some of that unfeigned delight has made its way into Ma's rhythmically light-footed performance. Whether on CD or videocassette, it is the best of all possible introductions to Yo-Yo Ma's newly revised version of the Gospel According to Johann Sebastian Bach.

--By Terry Teachout