BACH: 6 Cello Suites – Ovidiu Marinescu, cello – Navona (2 CDs)

J.S. BACH: 6 Cello Suites – Ovidiu Marinescu, cello – Navona Records 5840 (2 CDs), 131:10 [Distr. by Naxos] ***1/2:
Romanian cellist/conductor Ovidiu Marinescu spends a lot of time in the United States performing and teaching, and has established himself as a first rank musical polyglot. His tone is very rich, almost heavy, and in this music at least he seems to lack the requisite lightness of touch that so illumines Bach’s lilting faster passages. Part of this may be the recording—in all honestly I am not certain. But I do know that this is the closest-up recording of these suites I have ever heard, almost claustrophobically so, and the sound level was recorded way up, again the highest I have ever heard this work, and it sent me rushing for the “down” volume because I was afraid of speaker damage. So I am willing to consider the possibility that this volume level in the recording might not be doing Marinescu any favors either.
Aside from a penchant in certain movements to exaggerate the downbeat and exacerbate Bach’s perfectly balanced pedal point, there seems no consistency of approach to this music. So an opening prelude might be portamento-laden at every turn while the minuets scamper like scherzos. All in all too willful for my taste even though it must be admitted that some very successful recordings are precisely that. But I can’t detect the method behind the madness—others might.
But the sound also exposes multitudinous instances of cello slapping, so much that a few times it’s like a percussion instrument has been added to the score, and the closeness also brings out the vibrations in the other strings which can be very distracting.
I am giving this three and on-half stars based on Ovidiu Marinescu’s obvious technique and facility, and that fact that he does have something to say here. But in the end the lack of clarity sabotages it, and when compared to Winona Zelenka’s marvelous recording from a couple of years ago it’s just not enough.
—Steven Ritter