'The Cello Suites': Bach's immortal music, lost and found

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

by Eric Siblin

Atlantic Monthly Press, 319 pp., $24

Bach's six suites for the solo cello are among the most iconic works of music ever composed. They have been played by the world's greatest cellists, on disc and on film, at the fall of the Berlin Wall and at the memorial services for everyone from the victims of 9/11 to the funeral of Sen. Edward Kennedy. And they're on the "desert island" selections of nearly all classical-music lovers.

Now an engaging and imaginative new book by Canadian journalist/filmmaker Eric Siblin explores the Cello Suites from historical and contemporary standpoints, starting with his own discovery of the music at a Toronto concert in 2000. Gripped by the music's beauty and power, Siblin embarked on a quest to find out more about the Suites. Why is there no original manuscript in Bach's own handwriting? Might such a manuscript turn up one day? And why were the Suites almost unknown for two centuries after their composition in 1720, until their rediscovery by the legendary Pablo Casals?

Siblin's charming narrative looks at the Cello Suites in three main perspectives: Bach's own life and work, Casals' lifelong journey through the Suites that he played every day, and Siblin's own discussions with today's eminent cellists about why this music has a unique fascination for the ear and the imagination. Each short chapter is named for a movement in the Suites ("Prelude," "Allemande," etc.) and is preceded by an appropriate quote. Among the most memorable sources: cello great Janos Starker, who has recorded the Suites five different times, and who has written that, imagining that he might some day have the ability to ask Bach how he wanted the Suites played, has "made the hereafter seem palatable and even desirable."