Giuliano Carmignola - Bach: 6 Suites a Violoncello Solo Senza Basso - BBC Music Magazine

Right from the timeless arpeggiations that characterise the G/D major suite’s opening Prelude, Carmignola asserts his own special interpretative proclivities: the magical musical intakes of breath during and at the ends of phrases, the endlessly flexible handling of dynamics, and a temporal elasticity that refuses to settle into any form of generic patterning. If more traditional accounts of these priceless scores tend to smooth over the music’s dancing origins, and those of a more authentic hue home in on their en pointe gesturing, Carmignola creates the impression of living through each phrase as though it is part of an over-arching choreographic narrative. In the timeless phrases of the C/G minor suite’s Sarabande, one can almost sense him moving gently to the music with exquisite poise, while in the Gigue finale of the D major suite, he seems on occasion to stamp his feet and clap, so evocative is his semantic gesturing.