David Russell: Bach Lute Suite #3

David Russell has been working his way through the Bach lute music (at least some of which is not actually lute music) and is now up to the 3rd Lute Suite, probably the most likely to be actually for lute even though it is a re-working of the Cello Suite No. 5 and that it was done by Bach has been challenged. Be that as it may, this suite and the Suite No. 4, a re-working of the Partita No. 3 for solo violin, are the most suitable for the guitar. Here is the new clip, just streamed last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUnJBR5kR0I

David Russell is a fantastic guitarist, of course, commanding the whole repertoire with technical ease. I just listened to the gavottes, as I have been playing them a lot lately, and what really puzzles me is why he takes everything at a breakneck clip? In addition, is there a book on Baroque music that says that phrasing is not allowed in dance music (the gavotte being a dance form)? In that same book, is there another rule that says that the two gavottes have to be at the same tempo? True, just about every guitarist plays Bach in just this way, but so much the worse for them. No composer sounds his best when strapped to the Procrustean bed of rigid tempi and no allowance for expression. For example, I find that there are several places in the first gavotte where a little inégale works very well. Thomas Dunford inégales all the way through in his performance of the gavottes, but I prefer to mix it up a bit. The point is that this is music, not a race. Let the music ebb and flow a bit.