The Cello Suites: In Search of a Baroque Masterpiece - Softcover

Siblin, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846553563 ISBN 13: 9781846553561

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2010

Synopsis

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. There, something unlikely happened: he fell deeply in love with the music. So began a quest that would unravel three centuries of mystery, intrigue, history, politics, and passion.

Part biography, part music history, and part literary mystery, The Cello Suites weaves together three dramatic narratives: the first features Bach and the missing manuscript of these mesmerisingly beautiful eighteenth-century pieces for solo cello; the next, the legendary cellist Pablo Casals and the historic discovery of the music in Spain in the late nineteenth century; and the last, Eric Siblin's own infatuation with the suites in the twenty-first century.

This love affair leads Siblin to the back streets of Barcelona and a Belgian mansion; to interviews with world-renowned cellists; to archives, festivals, and conferences; and even to cello lessons - all in pursuit of answers to the mysteries that continue to haunt this music more than 250 years after its composer's death.

The Cello Suites is a lovingly written, true-life journey of discovery, fuelled by the transcendent power of a musical masterpiece.

About this title

Review:

'...business-like prose Siblin explores the source of both his and Casals's fascination with some of Bach's most challenging music.' --Guardian

`Siblin's book is well-researched, and filled with enough anecdotes to engage even the classical-music aficionado...' --Economist

'...a sprawling but tirelessly enthusiastic effort... how Bach's music can be liberated from stuffiness and kept alive for future generations' --Scotland on Sunday

`genuine and well researched'
--The Times

'joyfully and informatively mixes anecdote and biography...a fitting tribute to one of the classical canon's cornerstones' --Metro

'highly original and entertaining' --Sunday Business Post

'he does a good job of placing the suites in their various historical and biographical contexts.' --Sunday Times

`This quirky, word of mouth success... teases out a history that invites intrigue, mystery and genius.' -- Belfast Telegraph

"...there is no mistaking his passion for this music, for the remarkable story that lies behind its survival..." --Tablet

`His style is folksy and endearing' --TLS, December 13, 2010

Book Description:

The remarkable story of the search to discover the truth about some of the greatest music ever written

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1846553563
• ISBN 13: 9781846553561
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336