Reviews of "Baroque Cello Illuminations"
Gramophone
Anyone who finds Baroque instrumental music boring should listen to this! Angela East's expertise and enthusiasm have long been familiar to followers of the Revolutionary Drawing Room and Red Priest, and she brings to these suites and sonatas an uninhibited expressive style and a determination to present the character of each movement in the strongest, most searching light.
Classical Music 'Recording of the Fortnight'
East is throwing light on the missing element in much baroque performance: the performer. Rubato, extreme dynamics, rhythmic variation generate the excitement of spontaneity.
MusicWeb International
She makes music which can sometimes sound merely intellectual and academic genuinely affective...her performance (Bach Cello Suite No 1) deserves to be ranked with the best, (Pierre Fournier and Paul Tortelier) - I haven't heard Steven Isserlis's highly praised performances on Hyperion but I can't imagine this his version of No 1 surpasses East.
Early Music Today
Not only a joy to listen to, with some gutsy playing, these are all pieces commonly used to teach cello students, so the disc is good educational value too.
Musical Pointers
A nice disc of 'old favourites cello teachers like to teach.' All despatched with style and conviction and a good model for cello students everywhere.
New Classics
Angela East plays with all the verve and technical mastery of one of the world's finest baroque cellists.
European String Teachers' Association Magazine
Listening to this CD is like greeting an old friend you haven't seen for ages. So much is warmly familiar it makes the heart glad and slightly nostalgic. I have never before heard a recording of the de Fesch Sonata in D minor, for instance, which I remember playing in my distant school days. And yet there are embellishments and delicate ornamentation that give an exciting freshness to the interpretation and promise that revisiting these old friends will be very worthwhile as there is more to discover. This CD takes treasured favourites firmly away from being pieces used simply on a learning pathway to over an hour of glorious Baroque played on period instruments.
The Strad
An exciting and imaginative showcase of exam chestnuts, some bypassed in concerts purely because of their pedagogical association, I particularly liked the ornamental embellishments on the repeats in the Eccles Sonata, which so artfully depart from the plain melodic line.
Early Music Review
I really liked the Vivaldi and the Bach, which just has to be on everyone with a soul's Desert Island Discs list - and the performances are colourful and imaginative, with some lovely ornamentation.
Anyone who finds Baroque instrumental music boring should listen to this! Angela East's expertise and enthusiasm have long been familiar to followers of the Revolutionary Drawing Room and Red Priest, and she brings to these suites and sonatas an uninhibited expressive style and a determination to present the character of each movement in the strongest, most searching light.
Classical Music 'Recording of the Fortnight'
East is throwing light on the missing element in much baroque performance: the performer. Rubato, extreme dynamics, rhythmic variation generate the excitement of spontaneity.
MusicWeb International
She makes music which can sometimes sound merely intellectual and academic genuinely affective...her performance (Bach Cello Suite No 1) deserves to be ranked with the best, (Pierre Fournier and Paul Tortelier) - I haven't heard Steven Isserlis's highly praised performances on Hyperion but I can't imagine this his version of No 1 surpasses East.
Early Music Today
Not only a joy to listen to, with some gutsy playing, these are all pieces commonly used to teach cello students, so the disc is good educational value too.
Musical Pointers
A nice disc of 'old favourites cello teachers like to teach.' All despatched with style and conviction and a good model for cello students everywhere.
New Classics
Angela East plays with all the verve and technical mastery of one of the world's finest baroque cellists.
European String Teachers' Association Magazine
Listening to this CD is like greeting an old friend you haven't seen for ages. So much is warmly familiar it makes the heart glad and slightly nostalgic. I have never before heard a recording of the de Fesch Sonata in D minor, for instance, which I remember playing in my distant school days. And yet there are embellishments and delicate ornamentation that give an exciting freshness to the interpretation and promise that revisiting these old friends will be very worthwhile as there is more to discover. This CD takes treasured favourites firmly away from being pieces used simply on a learning pathway to over an hour of glorious Baroque played on period instruments.
The Strad
An exciting and imaginative showcase of exam chestnuts, some bypassed in concerts purely because of their pedagogical association, I particularly liked the ornamental embellishments on the repeats in the Eccles Sonata, which so artfully depart from the plain melodic line.
Early Music Review
I really liked the Vivaldi and the Bach, which just has to be on everyone with a soul's Desert Island Discs list - and the performances are colourful and imaginative, with some lovely ornamentation.
Reviews of "Bach The Cello Suites"
Lindsay Kemp Gramophone March 2010
East's fresh and varied approach to the Cello Suites is sure to make you smile. Certainly in the largely serious world of Bach Suite interpretation they offer a fresh view in which emotion and sense of fun have as much a part to play as the cerebral and the thought-out. One could say that in general she favours strongly shaped movements in which climactic moments are marked by dynamics and rubato and that robustly carved articulation is a major part of her armoury. But it would take more words than I have been allowed to convey the variety of her ideas; the high-stepping First Courante, with attendant heavy landings, the aggressively attacked First Gigue, dramatically pausing just before the end, the gaunt mezza voce of the Fifth Sarabande, the plaintive yearning of the Second Prelude, the subdued opening and the stop-starts of the Sixth Prelude, the increasingly drawn-out double-stop passages in the Third Gigue - I could go on. Her cello has a good lusty tone and the five-stringed instrument used for the Sixth Suite offers unusually stress-free top notes.
Blair Sanderson, Rovi
To say that Angela East's interpretations of J. S. Bach's six unaccompanied Cello Suites are out of the mainstream may be an understatement because she not only performs them on a Baroque period cello and follows a manuscript copied out by Anna Magdalena Bach, she also takes certain liberties of tempo and expression that make this set unlike any that came before. Still, all the factors that contribute to the eccentricity of this Red Priest recordings double-disc also make it one of the most interesting and challenging renditions of the suites to come along in ages. In a market filled with interpretations that vie for comparisons with the legendary sets by Pablo Casals or Pierre Fournier, here is a refreshing performance that goes its own peculiar way, and East is intellectually and expressively free to follow only Bach, wherever she thinks he leads. Some of what seems odd and original about East's performance may be traced back to Anna Magdalena Bach's copy, which includes unusual phrasing marks and accents that differ substantially from the published music. Have these given East license to be unorthodox? While such matters are usually left to the scholars to hash out, listeners may well appreciate the freshness and fearlessness of East's recording simply by comparing it with its predecessors. It's not for everybody but that may be the secret of its success.
September 2009 Musical Pointers
Yes, having sampled one, I have gone on to listen to the others, and am happy to confirm that these CDs earn a place in any cello fancier's library.
Classical Music Magazine Dec 09
There are two special features, the first a series of images which she relates to the different Suites (photos Graham Flack) and the second Angela East's saga from her initial recordings (Quebec 2001 & New York 2004) to fulfillment in CD release
Plenty of virtuosity and expressive intensity.
Fanfare
She is in a category all to herself. Throughout, Angela East displays a firm, rich sound, solid intonation and an adventurous spirit that accomplishes her stated goal of breathing new life into these chestnuts of the cello literature. This is a CD for people who think they hate the baroque cello.
Reviews for the Revolutionary Drawing Room
The Revolutionary Drawing Room recorded the string quartets by Boccherini Op 33, 39, 41 and 58 and the complete string quartets by Donizetti. Angela founded the ensemble in 1990 and directed the group until 2004.
Gramophone Stanley Sadie 'Critics' Choice Dec 95
The outstanding issue is the Revolutionary Drawing Room's recording of Boccherini quartets from his Op 39 and 41, music that combines gently sophisticated utterance with real depth of feeling which these players never fail to catch.
Early Music Review:
The three quartets on this disc receive extremely stylish playing from a quartet (RSQ) who will give the Salamons a run for their money. Sep 95
East's fresh and varied approach to the Cello Suites is sure to make you smile. Certainly in the largely serious world of Bach Suite interpretation they offer a fresh view in which emotion and sense of fun have as much a part to play as the cerebral and the thought-out. One could say that in general she favours strongly shaped movements in which climactic moments are marked by dynamics and rubato and that robustly carved articulation is a major part of her armoury. But it would take more words than I have been allowed to convey the variety of her ideas; the high-stepping First Courante, with attendant heavy landings, the aggressively attacked First Gigue, dramatically pausing just before the end, the gaunt mezza voce of the Fifth Sarabande, the plaintive yearning of the Second Prelude, the subdued opening and the stop-starts of the Sixth Prelude, the increasingly drawn-out double-stop passages in the Third Gigue - I could go on. Her cello has a good lusty tone and the five-stringed instrument used for the Sixth Suite offers unusually stress-free top notes.
Blair Sanderson, Rovi
To say that Angela East's interpretations of J. S. Bach's six unaccompanied Cello Suites are out of the mainstream may be an understatement because she not only performs them on a Baroque period cello and follows a manuscript copied out by Anna Magdalena Bach, she also takes certain liberties of tempo and expression that make this set unlike any that came before. Still, all the factors that contribute to the eccentricity of this Red Priest recordings double-disc also make it one of the most interesting and challenging renditions of the suites to come along in ages. In a market filled with interpretations that vie for comparisons with the legendary sets by Pablo Casals or Pierre Fournier, here is a refreshing performance that goes its own peculiar way, and East is intellectually and expressively free to follow only Bach, wherever she thinks he leads. Some of what seems odd and original about East's performance may be traced back to Anna Magdalena Bach's copy, which includes unusual phrasing marks and accents that differ substantially from the published music. Have these given East license to be unorthodox? While such matters are usually left to the scholars to hash out, listeners may well appreciate the freshness and fearlessness of East's recording simply by comparing it with its predecessors. It's not for everybody but that may be the secret of its success.
September 2009 Musical Pointers
Yes, having sampled one, I have gone on to listen to the others, and am happy to confirm that these CDs earn a place in any cello fancier's library.
Classical Music Magazine Dec 09
There are two special features, the first a series of images which she relates to the different Suites (photos Graham Flack) and the second Angela East's saga from her initial recordings (Quebec 2001 & New York 2004) to fulfillment in CD release
Plenty of virtuosity and expressive intensity.
Fanfare
She is in a category all to herself. Throughout, Angela East displays a firm, rich sound, solid intonation and an adventurous spirit that accomplishes her stated goal of breathing new life into these chestnuts of the cello literature. This is a CD for people who think they hate the baroque cello.
Reviews for the Revolutionary Drawing Room
The Revolutionary Drawing Room recorded the string quartets by Boccherini Op 33, 39, 41 and 58 and the complete string quartets by Donizetti. Angela founded the ensemble in 1990 and directed the group until 2004.
Gramophone Stanley Sadie 'Critics' Choice Dec 95
The outstanding issue is the Revolutionary Drawing Room's recording of Boccherini quartets from his Op 39 and 41, music that combines gently sophisticated utterance with real depth of feeling which these players never fail to catch.
Early Music Review:
The three quartets on this disc receive extremely stylish playing from a quartet (RSQ) who will give the Salamons a run for their money. Sep 95
