LDV115-6

19 MICHIAKI UENO Do you consider you belong to a specific musical lineage? I’ve been influenced by my teachers, including Pieter Wispelwey. His musical conception still inspires me, as does that of Pablo Casals. All the same, an interpreter can’t draw on just a single tradition. The most important thing is to have a clear idea of the story you’re telling. I confess that, here too, instinct takes precedence over ‘the rule’. The key point is to preserve the unity, the narrative tension within each suite, and keep to the same message. To play in the ‘Baroque style’ is an illusion, even if one knows the principles of ‘historically informed performance’. I use a modern bow and a modern cello with wound gut strings for this repertory. As to the question of the tempo for each dance, I find that’s entirely relative. It’s a combination of a number of parameters, including the choice of instrument and strings, but also the acoustic. I was lucky enough to record in a church with a very inspiring ambience, which lends itself beautifully to this repertory. Some of the suites suggest different instruments. For example, the Fifth Suite evokes the timbres of the lute and the Sixth seems to call for a five-stringed violoncello piccolo. For the Sixth Suite, I play my four-stringed cello by an unknown Italian maker. It’s a remarkably effective instrument for playing Bach because it has powerful bass resonances and projects the sound very well. To use four strings instead of five in this piece has always been a technical challenge for every cellist. And I must say it’s pretty exciting!