The Cello Suites

One autumn evening, shortly after ending a ten year stint as a pop music columnist for the Montreal Gazette, Eric Siblin attended a concert at Toronto s Royal Conservatory of Music There, something unlikely happened he fell in love with a piece of classical music Bach s cello suites Part biography, part music history, and part literary mystery, The Cello Suites weaves together three dramatic stories The first features Johann Sebastian Bach and the missing manuscript of his suites from the eighteenth century the second is that of Pablo Casals and his incredible discovery of the manuscript in Spain in the early twentieth century and the third is Eric Siblin s own infatuation with the suites in the twenty first century.This love affair leads Siblin to the back streets of Barcelona, a Belgian mansion, and a bombed out German palace to interviews with cellists Mischa Maisky, Anner Bylsma, and Pieter Wispelwey to archives, festivals, conferences, and cemeteries and even to cello lessons all in pursuit of answers to the mysteries that continue to haunt this piece of music than 250 years after its composer s death.The Cello Suites is an incomparable, beautifully written, true life journey of passion, imagination, and discovery, fuelled by the transcendent power of a musical masterpiece. Read The Cello Suites – kino-fada.fr This is a highly readable and entertaining book about Bach s Cello Suites which covers Bach s biography, that of the epic Cellist Pablo Casals who re discovered the suites his fabled recording was my entry into the Bach world , and the author s own research and fascination with Bach and the Suites Far less erudite and most likely less factual as well than the awesome Christoph Wolff biography, this one is a quick read and does feature some interesting anecdotes and gave me a new appreciation This is a highly readable and entertaining book about Bach s Cello Suites which covers Bach s biography, that of the epic Cellist Pablo Casals who re discovered the suites his fabled recording was my entry into the Bach world , and the author s own research and fascination with Bach and the Suites Far less erudite and most likely less factual as well than the awesome Christoph Wolff biography, this one is a quick read and does feature some interesting anecdotes and gave me a new appreciation to the music.I now have about 18 copies of the suites and they are all incredibly different Of course, Casals is the first landmark recording, but Paolo Pandolfo s is quite beautiful Oph lie Gaillard s is quite amazing as are those of Jonas Starker and Steve Isserlis I actually attended a recording of a Radio France show where they did a blind test with th...Bach s Suites for Unaccompanied Cello have long been among my favorite pieces of music Eric Silbin s The Cello Suites tenderly tracks them through Bach s creation, their discovery by Pablo Casals and to the author s own exploration of the music and himself.I really liked this book Learned a lot, to be sure, about Bach, Casals and these wonderful notes I found myself boring friends and family...Bach s Cello Suites are sublime this book is not It s not a bad book by any means and I m glad I read it It tells the life stories of Bach and Casals in relation to the cello suites, along with the story of the author s discovery of the suites and subsequent research into them There are six suites each made up of six movements so Siblin structured his book into six parts of six chapters, each with the title of a suite and a movement, an overly cute device in my book As for the subject matte Bach s Cello Suites are sublime this book is not It s not a bad book by any means and I m glad I read it It tells the life stories of Bach and Casals in relation to the cello suites, along with the story of the author s discovery of the suites and subsequent research into them There are six suites each made up of six movements so Siblin structured his book into six parts of six chapters, each with the title of a suite and a movement, an overly cute device in my book As for the subject matter, it was interesting up to a point but since I knew the main facts of Bach s life there was little new there for me I knew nothing of Casals so almost all of his story was new to me But while I get the fact that Casals was responsible for re introducing the forgotten Cello Suites to the public during the early twentieth ce...This is a wonderful book Not definitive in any way but pleasurable as a good guilty read.Bach s Cello Suites are perhaps the most intriguing pieces of music ever written Largely forgotten for almost two centuries incredibly found by the man who would become the world s greatest cellist.Eric Siblin, a former pop music critic has written a great book about the suites and their mysterious history It s also a mini biography of Bach and Pablo Casals, the cellist who discovered them at the age o This is a wonderful book Not definitive in any way but pleasurable as a good guilty read.Bach s Cello Suites are perhaps the most intriguing pieces of music ever written Largely forgotten for almost two centuries incredibly found by the man who would become the world s greatest cellist.Eric Siblin, a former pop music critic has written a great book about the suites and their mysterious history It s also a mini biography of Bach and Pablo...Eric Siblin, journalist en in die hoedanigheid schrijver van recensies van popconcerten, raakt in het jaar 2000 het 250e sterfjaar van Bach min of meer toevallig verzeild bij een concert waarin de Cellosuites van Bach worden uitgevoerd Hij is diep onder de indruk van deze muziek en besluit er een boek over te schrijven.Bach schreef de zes suites waarschijnlijk rond 1725 Intrigerend is dat de muziek eeuwenlang verloren leek, tot een jonge Catalaanse cellist in 1890 er bij toeval op stuitte D Eric Siblin, journalist en in die hoedanigheid schrijver van recensies van popconcerten, raakt in het jaar 2000 het 250e sterfjaar van Bach min of meer toevalli...Ever since I heard Anner Bylsma s austere interpretation of Bach s 6 Suites for Cello back in the 80s, I ve had a deep affection for this music I just checked my iTunes library I currently have 10 different versions of the complete set for cello, plus one performed on guitar and another on viola da gamba Ironically, I don t have the set by Pablo Casals, the engaging hero of Siblin s short account of this almost lost composition.I m not sure what I expected from this book It s the work of a Ever since I heard Anner Bylsma s austere interpretation of Bach s 6 Suites for Cello back in the 80s, I ve had a deep affection for this music I just checked my iTunes library I currently have 10 different versions of the complete set for cello, plus one performed on guitar and another on viola da gamba Ironically, I don t have the set by Pablo Casals, the engaging hero of Siblin s short account of this almost lost composition.I m not sure what I expected from this book It s the work of an amateur in the best sense Siblin is an established critic of pop music, and he sometimes writes about Bach and Casals as if...Whether you like classical music or not, check out the links to other enthusiastic reviews on my blog and I m sure you ll rush out and buy the book and music too SeeI first got excited about the cello suites about a year ago when I found a recording by Yo Yo Ma at the library I probably wouldn t have given this book a serious look except the praise for it from Simon Winchester printed on the front of the dust jacket This book tells the story of the rediscovery of the suites in a second hand music store by Pablo Casals in the early 20th century and how he revolutionized the role of the cello with his world famous performances of it He practiced it for 12 I first got excited about the cello suites about a year ago when I found a recording by Yo Yo Ma at the library I probably wouldn t have given this book a serious look except the praise for it from Simon Winchester printed on the front of the dust jacket This book tells the story of the rediscovery of the suites in a second hand music store by Pablo Casals in the early 20th century and how he revolutionized the role of the cello with his world famous performances of it He practiced it for 12 years before he performed it It is also a history of JS Bach Given the fanatical interest in his life by researchers and Bach nerds, it s surpri...I wanted to like this book a lotthan I was able to The idea of dividing the book into suites and movements just seemed gimmicky to me, and Siblin gives lots of attention to things that have very little to do with the cello suites e.g., a chapter on the young Casals love life Siblin s account tends to be pretty superficial, focusing on dramatic events and ignoring less splashy butimportant aspects of his subjects lives, especially in the case of Bach e.g., a couple of pages on I wanted to like this book a lotthan I was able to The idea of dividing the book into suites and movements just seemed gimmicky to me, and Siblin gives lots of attention to things that have very little to do with the cello suites e.g., a chapter on the young Casals love life Siblin s account tends to be pretty superficial, focusing on dramatic events and ignoring less splashy butimportant aspects of his subjects lives, especially in the case of Bach e.g., a couple of pages on a knife fight the young Bach may or may not have actually engaged in, but nothing on what he studied in high school other than music Siblin also has an annoying way of speculating asserting what people were thinking in different situations whe...Siblin s passion for the Cello Suites mirrors my own He has several beautiful descriptions of the suites Though my favorite is actually a quote from the cellist Mischa Maisky, who compares the suites to a diamond with so many different cuts that reflect light in so many different ways Readers should be aware that Siblin does not have any special credentials or authority when it comes to Bach or classical music This doesn t discredit his writing, but it s important to know what you re getti Siblin s passion for the Cello Suites mirrors my own He has several beautiful descriptions of the suites Though my favorite is actually a quote from the cellist Mischa Maisky, who compares the suites to a diamond with so many different cuts that reflect light in so many different ways Readers should be aware that Siblin does not have any special credentials or authority when it comes to Bach or classical music This doesn t discredit his writing, but it s important to know what you re getting into He is writing this book because he, like many of us, randomly discovered and was moved by Bach s cello suites and that special awe and sublimity that the suites invoke in listeners, was a catalyst for his research and interest in the subject I do think the title was a bit misleading, as the search for a Baroque masterpiece was ultimately a very anticlimactic part of this story What you do get in this book is a lot of Bach biography, interesting anecdotes about Pablo Casals, and Siblin s ponde...

• English
• 07 October 2018
Eric Siblin
• Hardcover
• 336 pages
• 0887842224
• Eric Siblin
• The Cello Suites