Armenian-born Suren Bagratuni is a compelling, highly individual cellist who can make his instrument sing even in difficult 20th-century music. Winner of the silver medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky Competition, he wound up on the faculty of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He has the potential to become a cult figure: a vivid musical personality who records only intermittently on small, hard-to-find labels. His traversal of the Bach suites would surely turn heads if it came within range of many ears; it is captivating, occasionally controversial, and always expressive.

In the G-Major Suite, Bagratuni quickly reaches escape velocity; he zips right through the Prelude (this seems to be a common practice among Russian-trained cellists), and, after a light Allemande, propels the Courante with nervous energy. His Sarabande is warmer and more meditative, and he eases more gently into the line in the Minuets and Gigue.

While some of Bagratuni’s playing elsewhere in this set is similarly fleet, the D-Minor Suite introduces a different aspect of his playing that will dominate the last three suites. Here his tempos grow significantly broader; he picks up the pace again in the C-Major Suite, but in the remainder of the works he turns deeply inward, slowing the tempo sometimes to extremes (he lavishes nine minutes on the Allemande of the D-Major Suite), but without ever letting the music sag or start to fall apart.

At any tempo, he is very sensitive to phrase shapes, perhaps romantically so. His tone is rich, but it’s not the beefy slab of sound you get from Rostropovich. In the EI-Major Suite, he brings firmness, not heaviness, to the rapid figurations in the Bourées. He plays the Sarabande of the C-Minor Suite almost non-legato, at least insofar as he avoids even the hint of a slide and articulates each note distinctly, yet he never gives the impression of sawing through the piece one note at a time, thanks to his telling phrasing and subtle dynamic adjustments.

There’s no point recording standard repertoire like this unless you have something personal to say, and Bagratuni certainly does. Now I’d like to hear what he has to say about the rest of the cello repertoire.

Bach: Cello Suites (2CDs)

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