AVAILABILITY
www.symposiumrecords.co.uk
This is a particularly
well-timed release. Christopher Bunting
was born in 1924 and next year celebrates
his eightieth birthday and these previously
unreleased private recordings bear testimony
to his profound insight into Bach’s
solo Suites. They also bear the impress
not only of his studies with Casals
but also of his unceasing devotion to
the literature and to these works in
particular. Bunting studied first with
Ivor James, a distinguished player who
was cellist of the Menges Quartet, later
moving on to Maurice Eisenberg in America.
Through him Bunting studied with Casals
in Prades, playing in the Festival orchestra
where section members included
Paul and Maude Tortelier and Nelson
Cooke. Though he performed works by
Martinů, Henze and Vladimir Vogel
he also premiered the Finzi Concerto
with Barbirolli in 1955 and the Rawsthorne
in 1967 under Sargent. These Bach recordings
– the documentation doesn’t disclose
whether they were made off-air or in
the privacy of Bunting’s own studio
– were made some time in the 1960s and
one can get a good view of his likely
qualities at around the time of the
Rawsthorne premiere. He was also the
first British cellist to give a radio
performance of the Shostakovich First
Cello Concerto as well as touring Alexander
Tcherepnin’s Twelve Preludes. Not the
least of his accomplishments was a radio
performance in which he played both
the cello and piano parts of the Brahms
Op. 38 Cello Sonata; a gift he shared
with another superb string playing pianist,
Henryk Szeryng.
Bunting was of a generation
of British cellists who came after William
Pleeth, Thelma Reiss, Antony Pini and
Antonia Butler but before Jacqueline
du Pré. Bunting was greatly esteemed
as a soloist and it was his misfortune
that the rise of du Pré led to
a wholesale concentration on her. It
wasn’t only Bunting – Joan Dickson,
Eileen Croxford and Amaryllis Fleming
also tended to be undervalued. Dickson
taught, as Bunting was later to do throughout
his career, but particularly after a
spinal injury forced his retirement,
whilst Croxford and Fleming formed admirable
chamber partnerships.
Joy Finzi once referred
to Bunting’s "grand manner"
and one understands what she meant when
listening to these noble and elevated
Bach performances. His tone has great
depth and he adopts flexible tempi in
Casals’ tradition. The Allemande of
the G major flows indelibly whilst the
Courante displays great freedom of articulation
and the concluding Gigue is admirably
buoyant. One admires his expressive
reserve in the Prelude of the D minor
and the powerfully sustained Sarabande
in the same Suite. How superbly one
feels the arch and motion of the Allemande
of the D major, the sense one always
has of being somewhere in the unfolding
architecture of the music. Then there
is the ebullience of the Gavottes –
Bunting is multifaceted.
It’s true that the
recording, whilst excellent of its type,
lacks definition, also that technically
a few things go inevitably awry. Nevertheless
this salute is well merited. Bunting’s
pedagogic work has made his name universally
known but it is salutary to be reminded
of the heights to which his music making
aspired in these admirable performances.
Jonathan Woolf
Christopher Bunting (cello) 