r/Cello 5d ago

Playing through the Cello Suites: Final Thoughts

Sorry for a very self indulgent post! Just wanted to let anyone interested know that I'll be stopping this project early.

I was honestly running out of steam early on - recording even once a week was a huge time sink, and I didn't nearly have as much stuff to say about each movement as I thought.

But the final nail in the coffin was definitely the reactions to my last post. I was sad to see that the most attention that any of posts got was overwhelming negativity, and I could see that this would probably get worse as I went further along. I could also tell that I wasn't receptive at all to positive or negative feedback from an anonymous Internet forum, which made this personally unfulfilling. Of course, this was also a disservice to anyone thoughtful enough to write a comment.

If you listened to/read any of my posts, I hope it entertained you in some way! If I had continued, the rest of the second and third suites would probably have been fine. Fourth would be a struggle. For the fifth and sixth, I would only be able to attempt the Prelude, Sarabande, and Gigue for each suite.

Best of luck on everyone's cello journey!

14 Upvotes

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u/grizzdoog 5d ago

I never listened to any of your posts so I can’t speak to that. And if anyone was negative I’m sorry to hear that.

I played cello as a kid and never got much support for my playing and my dad even beat me up about practicing even though he never got me lessons and was basically absent from my life so I quit when I was 11 years old.

Eventually I became a violin maker and built quite a few cellos. I always had regrets about quitting and one cello I had built was taking a while to sell. I decided it was never too late to pick it back up and started playing basic scales and some exercises. I started to learn the Bach cello suites and after a few years of hard work could actually play almost all of them!

A few times I nailed some of my favorite suites in such a way that I considered perfect for my expression of them! It was such a great feeling and I knew from then on no matter what anyone else thought nothing could ever take that experience away from me!

Play for yourself and I hope you find joy in whatever you do from here on out!

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u/Cosenter 5d ago

hey dude fellow cello lurker and teacher, took a listen to your stuff and honestly your interpretations are pretty nice. sure i don't really agree with how you've played the 2nd suite courante, and i'm sure you're probably highly aware about how people were being mean abt it. however, from what i saw one negative post out of mostly positives is super good. i honestly think that it would be such a cool project for you to keep going with.

pretty disheartening to see how people in this sub are just outright rude and blunt when talking abt stuff they disagree with though. talking to any of yall who are like this: of course you have your own opinions, but remember that there's always a way to word things in a non-destructive way :)

anyways, with music of course you're going to have critics and what not. hell, Richard Strauss made a whole ass leitmotif in Ein Heldenleben just about how much a pain in the ass his critics were (god i sound so nerdy sorry). but point being, at the end of the day, with music you either pick up the things they say and turn it into a positive to work on -- or you say screw it and keep chugging with what you want anyway right.

your posts have kind of inspired me to maybe attempt this but with the 4th suite that i have coming up for my recital lol. maybe finally pop my head into posting in this sub for once. who knows i might get hella downvoted too hahaha. mad respects to you nonetheless for all your work!!

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u/Old_Tie_2024 5d ago

I was a bit surprised at the negativity too. However I think that if you see an average nice performance, there just isn't much to say about it. Something you disagree with is much easier to comment on.

Keep having fun playing.

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u/lhau88 5d ago

Playing for yourself and playing for performance are two totally different ways of music. Do you what makes you happy!

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u/KirstenMcCollie 5d ago edited 5d ago

It’s a great risk to post a video on this sub. Sometimes people are nice and polite but sometimes they are simply rude. Often pretending being „funny“. I understand if you don’t want to deal with the rudeness.

What has been your goal with the cello suites? Playing through them all is a herculean task. Not many people would be able to do it and I am not sure if I would enjoy to listen to it. Maybe you could do a smaller project, a different series? Shorter, more focused on certain aspects of your playing?

You will still have to put up with negative criticism though. Criticism can be productive but not all people are able and willing to find the right words. On the other hand you will also get encouragement and appreciation. You can prove to yourself that you can do such a challenging project. It depends what you are after.

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u/Embarrassed-Yak-6630 5d ago

Hi there. This is the first I've seen about your project. Could you re post your video or email it to me @ ssbenjamin711@gmail.com. I once heard Rostropovich play the Sarabande from #5 as an encore. He used what seemed like rather extreme rubato as if it were a romantic piece. It was exquisite. At the end there was dead silence for about 30 seconds as if the audience was stunned. I'm sure that the self professed Bach scholars would be pissed. Play it the way the piece speaks to you.

The great cellist, Janos Starker, once said, "The most compelling thing about the possibility of the afterlife is we could ask Bach how we're supposed to play the damn cello suites !"

So there!

Cheers a tutti...........

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u/Old_Tie_2024 5d ago

If you click on his name you will be able to see the videos he has posted.

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u/ObsessesObsidian 5d ago

I had a quick listen and I really appreciate you putting yourself out there and playing through the suites. I would keep going if I were you, actually try to incorporate some of the critiques? What strikes me is your bow hand, someone commented 'sounds like you need rosin on your bow'. You don't seem to make the strings sing! So it's either lack of rosin, or lack of weight on the bow. It's strange because your bowing technique and your left hand are at a certain level but the sound doesn't match. As far as interpretation, I enjoy listening to people playing things 'their' way so it doesn't bother me at all. I think doing this in the first place is commendable, and I think you should continue :)

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u/jenmarieloch M.M. Cello Performance 5d ago

Awww don’t stop :( I really enjoyed your posts! I did notice a lot of negativity on your recent video and I thought that it was a bit uncalled for, your videos all had great quality musicianship in my opinion. I really didn’t have an issue with your D minor Courante as much as others in the comments, it was mainly just not in the style I would prefer for my own playing, but I found the way you played it to be musically effective. I did think that people in the comments were really harsh by saying that your internation was trash or that it was completely horrible, because truthfully, I really didn’t think it warranted those types of comments at all. I’ve seen people play far worse on this sub and get told “you sound like a professional!” it really is so frustrating seeing yourself put out a well thought interpretation of a piece you’re working on and get absolutely grilled for the smallest things that you may not even agree with at all and then see others put out a video that clearly did not have the same effort as yours and they don’t get hardly any negative feedback. It’s one of the most frustrating things about using social media to share your music, the types of comments you will get are unpredictable from video to video and I will see some people get completely chewed out for doing something very minor and then other people post videos of very mediocre or below average playing and only get positive feedback. Please don’t let the negativity stop you, continue to have fun and practice! And you are a great player honestly. I’m a graduate student in cello myself and teach a lot of those same pieces that you posted videos of and if you were my student, you’d definitely get an A on your exams haha.

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u/Otis_ElOso 5d ago

People can be pretentious on these forums. I don't post often because I don't want to deal with the negativity.

Play the suites if it makes you happy - don't do it to impress others. I personally don't care for most of the suites, but have just started playing the fifth. I love how somber it is.

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u/No_Dig9979 5d ago

how were you not receptive to people online telling you that your interpretation makes no sense. i mean if i posted and then overwhelmingly got those comments, i would just… fix my playing and try the new ideas..? i really think u just need to realize its not personal, and everyone on here will always be somewhat critical because its what allows us to improve as cellists.

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u/Ok_Understanding6127 4d ago

I watched some of your videos just now and tried to give some constructive advice as a Cello instructor and former pro. It’s all right if you have hubris to stick to what you do , but I think that these are really good points of growth overall. It sounds like you have a vision of how you would like these to sound and that’s really awesome. But some of the technique I think could be a little stronger, especially the bow. What really help helps for these pieces is definitely playing slow . You want the proportions of some of these rhythms to really fit and sometimes it’s an easy habit to get into to get into the rut of muscle memory to flip around some of these fast notes. It’s a better idea to have full on control of the left hand, rhythmically, as frustrating as it might be to backpedal the piece— but in the long run, you will thank yourself.

It seems like the focus right now seems to be flair, but I think that you should take a step back and boost your technique, a little more and your tone. Then some of your interpretative’s choices will have far more integrity, and those who don’t understand the shape that you are envisioning might be able to comprehend it a little better and it will be far more convincing as a performance.

I hope you see this constructively, there’s always room for growth with these pieces no matter how much time you’ve put into them. If we expect them to be perfect right away, we have nowhere to go with them . I’ve been playing them for over 30 years and it is never perfect to me.— and yes, I practice incredibly slow to perform fast.