The third and final concert in Confluence Concerts and the Toronto Bach Festival’s presentation of the Bach cello suites is now on line.  It features Andrew Downing playing the Suite No.2 in D minor BWV1008 on double bass and Ryan Davis playing the Suite No.5 in C minor BWV1011 on viola.  Both pieces were recorded in front of a live audience at Heliconian Hall.

I found Downing’s performance very interesting; perhaps the most fascinating of any of the six in the series.  He explains that his approach to the piece is influenced by his jazz background (I remember a cellist friend expressing the view that anyone who wanted to play baroque music should also play jazz) and how he was going to play the piece an octave down from “as written”.  This was visceral.  I think I felt the piece as much as heard it, which reflects considerable credit on the sound engineer as well as Andrew.  Ryan’s performance was highly competent and well recorded but it didn’t have as much impact for me as the first piece.  Finally we heard from Larry Beckwith that all six performances will reprise as one on-line film in the spring.