Tortelier Bach’s six Suites for Cello are at the pinnacle of works for that instrument. Cellists who tackle them successfully must have outstanding technical ability, rhythmic acuity, and the insight to convey the depth and drama inherent in the music. The French cellist Paul Tortelier is one who fully mastered these works. This DVD is a record of his 1990 performance at the Pablo Casals Festival of Prades. His son, the conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier, writes in the program notes that the event marked the cellist’s fortieth anniversary of his connection with the Festival, and that he regarded the Bach Suites as his "musical bible." Though 76 years old and warned by doctors that he needed surgery for his failing heart, he insisted on playing at the festival. Perhaps it was Tortelier’s health issues that account for the power of these performances. That back-story adds to the extra-musical interest in this DVD, as does the sad fact that Tortelier died a few months later. It’s likely a factor in the rare technical lapses that pop up here and there over the course of two-and-a-half hours of playing such difficult works with unbridled intensity. Each of the six Suites has the same structure: a Prelude followed by five dance-based movements, some slow, some fast, but all requiring a player in tune with Bach’s musical world. He doesn’t overly Romanticize the music, nor does he stress Bach’s abstract patterns over their expressive content. His decisive Preludes signal the dramas about to unfold. He infuses theSarabandeswith emotional power hinting at their profound depths. Elsewhere, as in theAllemandesand the closingGigues, the spirit of the dance is embodied in Tortelier’s rhythmic exactitude and lively playing. Visually, this DVD is a treat in its concentration on the cellist. Producer-director Peter Ammann refuses to let his cameras wander around the atmospheric, stone 10th-century Benedictine abbey that was the site of the concert or to the audience, which, aside from applause, is barely registered here. We get closeups of Tortelier’s weathered countenance, his hands, especially the left hand where his dancing fingers bring the music to life, and often long stretches of the cellist seen playing in full frontal views, his passion and concentration matching the music’s demands. The austere, but crisp and film-making is a perfect counterpart to Tortelier’s playing of Bach’s exalted music. --Dan DavisPaul Tortelier: Testament to Bach: The Complete Cello Suitesis an all-regions DVD  in color and in monophonic sound. Video ratio is 4:3.