The Cello Suites: In Search of a Baroque Masterpiece
Eric Siblin
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. 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.
3.1 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Music, Stage & Screen |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
336 |
| RRP |
£14.99 |
| Date of Publication |
January 2010 |
| ISBN |
978-1846553561 |
| Publisher |
Harvill Secker |
| |
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.
Reviews
The Economist
The Economist
"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, who memorably describes one Bach passage as a “spine-shivering, jewel-encrusted melody on a swath of organ and strings”, rises to the task."
07/01/2010
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The Times
Natalie Clein
"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. The story of Bach’s life is faithfully told and certainly adds context even if it fails to capture completely the real character of the man — but the music is there to do that for us."
07/01/2010
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The New York Times
Janet Maslin
"…a work of ever-percolating interest… It’s a sprawling but tirelessly enthusiastic effort. And it urgently asks how Bach’s music can be liberated from stuffiness and kept alive for future generations."
30/11/2009
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The Guardian
Phil Daoust
"He makes life difficult for his readers by copying the suites' structure, in six "preludes", "allemandes", "gigues" and so on, but wade through and you will encounter a Bach who is not just a composing machine but a human being… If you expect an author who goes "in search of a baroque manuscript" to end up getting his hands on it, this will leave you frustrated. Your mood may not be improved by the pages that focus on Siblin himself."
30/01/2010
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The Daily Telegraph
Paul Gent
"...he interweaves three stories: Bach’s, Casals’s and his own. The first two are lucidly, even grippingly, told. The third, essentially an account of how he researched the book, is an attempt to bring the book to life for non-musicians, but it feels artificially tacked on... Worst of all are his descriptions of the music. “The tones move closer and closer to a harrowing vision, weaving spider-like, relentlessly gathering sound into tighter concentric circles that come to an abrupt stop. Nothing fills the empty space. A tiny prayer is uttered.” Yuck."
26/01/2010
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The Sunday Times
Edward King
"The author is no musical scholar, and his book is aimed at enthusiasts. The result is a tone of breathlessness conveyed in the hyperbolic sound bites more closely associated with pop... While he does a good job of placing the suites in their various historical and biographical contexts, his often fairly dull personal accounts of attending music conventions and learning to play the cello never quite do justice to his subject."
17/01/2010
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