- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Grove Press; Reprint edition (January 4, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0802145248
- ISBN-13: 978-0802145246
One 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.
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