Bert Bailey wrote:

>Could you, Elle, or anyone else, upack just what this means? 'Sounds like
>some sort of permissible interference with the JS Bach scores.

"Upack"? Anyway..The editing that Elle is referring to with the Bach Suites
is indications of bowing and fingering, plus probably the odd crescendo and
diminuendo, perhaps a tenuto mark or an accent here and there.

>Just what latitude is an interpreter considered to have to so alter a
>composer's work? Did Casals undertake his own edits, say, and Rostropovich
>too ...or is such editing optional?

This kind of editing is not altering the score, especially in Bach.  If
one looks at the original manuscript, some groups of notes are slurred,
which to a string player indicates bowings.  But the markings are vague
and inconsistant, and if I'm not mistaken, the original that exists was
not actually penned by JoSeb but rather AnnaMagda, so these markings are
not really much help to the cellist.  Secondly, there are virtually no
dynamic markings whatsoever.  In the course of interpreting the music a
cellist will basically create his or her own dynamics, according to the
harmony or shape of the line or whatever.  Casals and Slava and Maisky
and Runnion all have their own ideas, and the more famous ones actually
are asked by publishing houses to share their ideas (and thusly recieve
a chunk of change).

Personally, one edition or another is interesting to see how certain
players approach these works, but I use very few of others' suggestions,
and have my own "edition," filled with scribbled-out bowings and
fingerings.  Frankly, I've given up on writing out my bowings because I
tend to change them as soon as I write them down.  In fact a bowing that
works for me today will seem foolish tomorrow so my solution is basically
to have a general idea of the bowings and then respond according to the
moment.

>What's the relation of this, if any, with leaving in or bypassing "repeats"
>in keyboard (and other?) music?

Oh gosh, that word......Nothing to do with it, and almost all interpreters
take all the repeats in the Suites.  Myself I tend to ornament the repeats,
and I'm so used to taking the repeats that if I don't I feel like I'm
missing an arm.

Dave Runnion
http://mp3.com/davidrunnion