The Cello Suites: In Search of a Baroque Masterpiece

One autumn evening, not long after ending a stint as a pop music critic, Eric Siblin attended a recital of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites - and fell deeply in love. So began a quest that would unravel three centuries of mystery, intrigue, history, politics, and passion. The Cello Suites weaves together three dramatic narratives: the first features Bach and the missing manuscript of the suites; the next, the legendary Spanish Catalan cellist Pablo Casals and his historic discovery of the music; and finally, Eric Siblin's own infatuation. From the back streets of Barcelona to archives, festivals, and conferences, and even to cello lessons, Siblin attempts to unravel the enigmas that continue to haunt this mesmerisingly beautiful music.

About the Author :
Eric Siblin is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, and was the pop music critic at the Montreal Gazette. The Cello Suites is his first book. www.ericsiblin.com

Review :
In Siblin's world, Bach and Casals have real, beating hearts... He brings an unstuffy freshness to the often staid world of classical music writing... This book reminds us of the joy of exploration, of finding glorious things in the least likely places Bach and Casal's stories are lucidly, even grippingly, told A passionate ode to the joy of discovery... He doesn't patronise and writes about Bach for a reader like himself - who wants to know more but doesn't know where to start... What a gift A work of ever-percolating interest...tirelessly enthusiastic One of the most extraordinary, clever, beautiful, and impeccably researched books I have read in years Eric Siblin is just the kind of listener whom musicians love to find in their audiences We are introduced to the cellist Pablo Casals, who had a similar epiphany to Siblin's and converted the world to the Cello Suites Vividly chronicles Siblin's international search for the original, and unfound, score of the suites. The story is interspersed with digressions on the lives of Bach and Casals, which deftly reveal how contemporary politics shaped their music, and buffeted their careers. 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 Siblin's intricate book interleaves the stories of Bach, Casals, the suites themselves and his own research. Transposing the shape of his narrative on to the structure of the six suites and their six movements enables him to move lightly back and forth across the centuries. This quirky, word of mouth success follows former pop writer Eric Siblin as he attends a recital of Bach's cello suites and suitably smitten by some of the greatest music ever written, teases out a history that invites intrigue, mystery and genius