The Cello Suites, Eric Siblin
The Cello Suites, Eric Siblin
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

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

Author: Eric Siblin

Narrator: David de Vries

Unabridged: 8 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/06/2019

Synopsis

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.

About Eric Siblin

Eric Siblin is a writer with interests in history, music, hockey, and olive oil. Educated at Concordia University in Montreal, he has worked as a staff reporter for The Canadian Press and the Montreal Gazette. His first book, The Cello Suites, explores the multi-layered story of an epic composition by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Cello Suites was a number one national bestseller in Canada and named an Economist Book of the Year for 2010. It won the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, and the McAuslan First Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award, the Writers' Trust of Canada Non-Fiction Prize, and British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. It has been translated into nine languages. Studio Grace, published in 2015 to coincide with an album of the same name, is his second book.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on February 09, 2017

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.......more

Goodreads review by David on January 28, 2010

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 suit......more

Goodreads review by Randall on January 05, 2021

Pablo Casals said, “intonation is a matter of conscience”. Only nine works of Bach were published in his lifetime. Casals found the suites in 1890, and for twelve years practiced them every day before he played them in public. Casals charged the suites “with emotion” and he said, “How could anybody......more

Goodreads review by Jim on June 19, 2010

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 d......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on April 09, 2011

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 Sib......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List