In Sepia's Res: Pretty Views

These damp and frigid autumn nights, I've been contentedly immersing myself in the Queyras recordings of the Bach Cello Suites for warming company. Although they're roundly considered by critics as one of the best complete recent compilations, I've decided to dig around and see what else I can find aside from the oft-referenced and highly-revered Yo-Yo Ma performances.

Well, here is my Happy Discovery of the Evening: This recording of his Fifth Cello Suite ~ by Latvian-born Mischa Maisky ~ is gorgeously played with natural, conversational phrasing and super rich tone. I love the way he pours himself into his instrument through his bow; you can feel him breathe and sigh with the deepest sincerity. I quite believe I have just found my favourite "new" cellist.

With regards to the wondrous Maisky, here is a quick take on his fascinating background:

Born January 10, 1948 in Riga, Latvian SSR, Maisky began studies with Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory whilst pursuing a concert career throughout the Soviet Union. In 1966 he won 6th Prize at the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition. In 1970, he was imprisoned in a labor camp near Gorky for 18 months. After his release, he emigrated to Israel, where he holds citizenship. He also studied for a time with Gregor Piatigorsky in Los Angeles. He currently lives in Belgium.

In his performing and recording career, Maisky has worked in long-standing partnerships with artists such as the pianists Martha Argerich, Radu Lupu, and Sergio Tiempo, the violinists Gidon Kremer and Janine Jansen, and the conductors Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, and Giuseppe Sinopoli. He has played worldwide and has made numerous recordings. (Wikipedia)

In short, he's studied under one of the greatest cellists of all time, and has worked with some of my favourite pianists ever, like Argerich, Lupu, and Ashkenazy (whom I'd interviewed back when I was in school). Listening to this recording in itself is enough to make a fan of me; will have to see what else I can immerse myself in.

So, while enjoying the autumnal verses just below the clip, perhaps press play and have a lovely little moment, just for yourself.

Mischa Maisky ~ Cello Suite No.5: Prelude

"The crocuses and the larch turning green every year a week before the others and the pastures red with uneaten sheep's placentas and the long summer days and the newmown hay and the wood pigeon in the morning and the cuckoo in the afternoon and the corncrake in the evening and the wasps in the jam and the smell of gorse and the look of the gorse and the apples falling and the children walking in the dead leaves and the larch turning brown a week before the others and the chestnuts falling and the howling winds and the sea breaking over the pier and the first fires and the hooves on the road and the consumptive postman whistling 'The Roses are Blooming in Picardy' and the standard oil-lamp and of course the snow and to be sure the sleet and bless your heart the slush and every fourth year the February debacle and the endless April showers and the crocuses and then the whole bloody business starting all over again."

~ Samuel Beckett, Watt

"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape - the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter.

Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."

~ Andrew Wyeth

"It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life."

~ P. D. James

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

~ Albert Camus

In case the appetite is whetted for more Maisky and Bach, here is a ready remedy: one of the most beloved (and often used in television commercials, such as the one below (finger down throat, though the visuals are completely genius)):

Mischa Maisky ~ Bach: Cello Suite No. 1: Prelude