Awesome

Here's an excerpt from a first-rate feature article for the magazine, Strings, by James Reel of KUAT-FM Blog on François Rabbath, a performer whose name was previously unknown to me:

“He’s recorded all the Bach cello suites,” reports composer, bassist, and sometimes recording engineer Frank Proto, “but they’re not released, because he hasn’t gotten around to approving the editing. He’s done this a few times over the years. In the 1980s, we were supposed to record the second suite. I went to Paris and we were supposed to do it in a church, but the church became unavailable and François had just hurt his back. So I said, ‘Let’s just hang out a few days and enjoy ourselves.’

“He said, ‘Let’s try it in my apartment’. So I set up my equipment, he started playing, he forgot about his back, everything was going well, and we finished the second suite. Then he said, ‘Keep the thing running.’ He played through, without stopping, all six suites.

“It was awesome and I just let the tape run."

So, big deal. What’s so awesome about that? François Rabbath is a bassist, that's what.

RTWT here.