The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece

by Eric Siblin Narrated by David de Vries

Overview

One fateful evening, journalist Eric Siblin attended a recital of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites and began an epic quest that would unravel three centuries of intrigue, politics, and passion. Winner of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Nonfiction and the McAuslan First Book Prize, The Cello Suites weaves together three dramatic narratives: the disappearance of Bach's manuscript in the eighteenth century; Pablo Casals's discovery and popularization of the music in Spain in the late-nineteenth century; and Siblin's infatuation with the suites in the present day. The search led Siblin to Barcelona, where Casals, just thirteen and in possession of his first cello, roamed the backstreets with his father in search of sheet music and found Bach's lost suites tucked in a dark corner of a store. Casals played them every day for twelve years before finally performing them in public.



Siblin pursues the mysteries that continue to haunt this music more than 250 years after its composer's death: Why did Bach compose the suites for the cello, then considered a lowly instrument? What happened to the original manuscript? A seamless blend of biography and music history, The Cello Suites is a true-life journey of discovery, fueled by the power of these musical masterpieces.

Editorial Reviews

Janet Maslin

…a work of ever-percolating interest. Mr. Siblin winds up mixing high and low musical forms, art and political histories, Bach's and Casals's individual stories and matters of arcane musicology into a single inquisitive volume.
—The New York Times

Publishers Weekly

The ironies of artistic genius and public taste are subtly explored in this winding, entertaining tale of a musical masterpiece. Music critic Siblin parallels short, fluent biographies of composer Johann Sebastian Bach, whose six suites for solo cello were long disparaged as minor student exercises, and cello virtuoso Pablo Casals, whose landmark recording of the pieces catapulted them into the classical canon. Their lives are a study in contrasts: Bach is an obscure workaday musician who feels wasted “being merely the cantor of a Lutheran boarding school”; Casals, a musical superstar and anti-Fascist exile, is a romantic hero. Siblin intertwines his own story of trying to engage with the suites. He takes cello lessons, savors a rich variety of performances, including one on the marimbas, and embarks on a search for Bach's long-lost manuscript to discover clues to the enigmatic score. (Scholars aren't even certain the suites were written for cello.) Siblin is an insightful writer with an ability to convey the sound and emotional impact of music in words. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Organizing his chapters around each movement of the six unaccompanied cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach, first-time author Siblin (former pop music critic, Montreal Gazette) interweaves the connected stories of how cellist Pablo Casals's discovery of the music brought this series of great works to a wider public in the 20th century, the author's explorations of the two men, and his own musical experiences. Bach's and Casals's life stories are documented in alternating fashion, mostly chronologically, while we sympathize with the author as he tries to learn the cello and travels the world in search of original manuscripts and early printed scores relating to the suites. His turns of phrase are, save a few cutesy puns, felicitous; in general, his scholarship appears well validated despite some overly assured opinions. The up-to-date bibliography and suggested listening section are especially useful. VERDICT This winning combination of music history, biography, and whimsy should appeal to most readers; it is particularly gratifying as fewer books have been written about the cello than the usual suspects like piano and violin. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/09.]—Barry Zaslow, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

Kirkus Reviews

In his debut, a Canadian journalist traces the history of Johann Sebastian Bach's six cello suites from their composition to their rediscovery almost 200 years later. Siblin, the former pop-music critic at the Montreal Gazette, travels around the world following the suites through the lives of Bach and Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, whose performances of the suites launched them to their current fame. The author does a thorough job with the biography of Casals, whose life was nothing short of epic, and provides a capable travelogue of his journeys through Europe. However, when it comes to Bach and any sort of nuanced discussion of the suites themselves, Siblin falls short, failing to offer the slightest analysis or interpretation of the music. Even though the six chapters are entitled "Suite 1" through "Suite 6" and subdivided by movement (prelude, allemande, courante, etc.), these titles have little bearing on the actual text. This inability, or unwillingness, to address the music also affects the portion of the narrative devoted to Bach. While the facts about his personal life are quite intriguing and often very funny-he once got into a fist-fight for insulting a bassoonist-no true understanding of Bach's life can be reached without an earnest engagement with his compositions, which Siblin mostly avoids, aside from a few mentions of polyphony and counterpoint. In later sections, the narrative turns to the author's personal treasure hunt for manuscripts of the suites, which have yet to be found. It's an interesting final twist on Siblin's fixation, but readers may find it difficult to share his excitement, since the author neglects to examine what would be written on those sacred pages.Emotionally sincere but lacking insight into the music or its composer. Agent: Swanna MacNair/Fletcher & Company

From the Publisher

“This is one of the most extraordinary, clever, beautiful, and impeccably researched books I have read in years. A fascinating story deftly told—and, for me at least, ideally read with Bach’s thirty-six movements playing softly in the background; a recipe for literary rapture.”—Simon Winchester, author of the New York Times best-seller The Professor and the Madman

“Vividly chronicles [Siblin’s] international search for the original, and unfound, Bach score…Mr. Siblin’s book is well researched, and filled with enough anecdotes to engage even the classical-music aficionado…but the book is best distinguished by its writing. To vivify music in words is not easy. But Mr. Siblin…rises to the task…Read The Cello Suites—preferably with their melodious hum in the background—and you will never look at a cello in quite the same way again.”—The Economist

“This is rich terrain, and Siblin’s book is an engrossing combination of musical and political history spiced with generally vivid descriptions of the cello suites themselves…[Siblin] has given us a compelling portrait of a passionate, prickly Bach, of Casals, a musician who was also politically engaged, and an engrossing cast of secondary characters. Best of all, The Cello Suites makes us want to pop in a CD and really listen to those cello suites. Awesome.”—Wynne Delacoma, Chicago Sun-Times

“A work of ever-percolating interest. Mr. Siblin winds up mixing high and low musical forms, art and political histories, Bach’s and Casals’s individual stories and matters of arcane musicology into a single inquisitive volume.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“The ironies of artistic genius and public taste are subtly explored in this winding, entertaining tale of a musical masterpiece…Siblin is an insightful writer with an ability to convey the sound and emotional impact of music in words.”—Publishers Weekly

“Engaging and imaginative…a charming narrative.”—Melinda Bargreen, The Seattle Times

“The author has done a wealth of research in pursuit of his new passion, and he writes engagingly…this intrepid writer has worked hard to interest readers in his musical obsession, and there is a great deal to chew on here.”—Priscilla S. Taylor, he Washington Times

“It’s not often that one begins reading a book with mild interest and then can’t put it down, which happened to me with this beautiful book.”—Diana Athill, author of Stet and Somewhere Towards the End

“…pitch-perfect…The Cello Suites is, on all counts, a superior book.”
-QWF McAuslan First Book Prize Jury citation

“…an ambitious, carefully researched, and inventively constructed book written with clarity and verve.”—Mavis Gallant Prize for Nonfiction Jury Citation

“A delightfully quirky quest…Eric Siblin seamlessly weaves together the tale of how Bach’s lost and mostly forgotten manuscript came to be discovered a century later by Pablo Casals, and finally became Siblin’s personal passion.”—Governor General’s Literary Award Jury Citation

“A book of extraordinary charm, insight, and widespread literary appeal.”—BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction Jury Citation

“Siblin firmly believes ‘Bach is what you make of him’—and his book represents just that…No matter what the great composer means to readers, they will surely enjoy Siblin’s fun, fast-paced journey from pop-music scribbler to Bach aficionado.”—Christian Science Monitor

“A book that will fascinate anyone who loves Bach’s music. . .engaging. . .Many of the facts woven into textual fabric glitter like metal threads as Siblin shifts the reader’s focus from one protagonist to the other. The result are rich depictions of Bach in his 18th-century milieu and Casals in his 20th-century sphere. . . The author’s colorful prose conveys substantial charm, and reveals a first-rate travel writer’s sense of place. . .sets biographical and musicological details neatly in context.”—David Lander, Stereophile

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170571888
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	08/06/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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