Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Sweet Cello


My latest side trip into the world of J. S. Bach is a paperback I picked up on a whim at our local indie bookshop: The Cello Suites by Canadian journalist Eric Siblin. I was previously unfamiliar with these suites except from guitar or lute transcriptions. Emusic has an excellent recording by Pierre Fournier on DGG Archiv for a decent price, so I availed myself of the opportunity. A wise move, because both book and music are excellent.

Siblin first encountered the cello suites at a recital selected by chance during the unwinding of a pop music critic stint at the Montreal Gazette. The program notes mentioned that no original manuscript of the suites has been located, and Siblin's journalistic interest was piqued. Nine years later, Siblin published his book, a parallel biography of Bach and Pablo Casals, the cellist who introduced the suites to the world. Bach wrote six cello suites, so Siblin divided his book into six parts, one for each suite. The suites each have six movements, following a standard sequence, starting with a Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and concluding with a Gigue. The fifth movement varies between Minuet, Bourrée, or Gavotte. Siblin also subdivided each chapter into the suites' six movements, three for Bach, two for Casals, and reserving the ultimate gigue for the story of his quest.

Siblin shifts perspective in the Bach chapters so that the cello suites are never far from view even as his attention wanders over a wide range of topics, from biography of Bach and his descendants to reception history. Scholars place their genesis during Bach's tenure at Köthen, where he wrote much of his virtuoso keyboard and secular music. So Siblin has a chapter on the political forces that had caused excellent musicians to migrate to Köthen from Berlin, an example of a historical context that Siblin deploys throughout the book. A Near Eastern flourish in the prelude to the fourth suite leads to a digression on whether Bach might have ever heard Jewish music. Each chapter has an entertaining or illuminating anecdote, and together they give a multi-dimensional perspective on these suites.

The Casals chapters of necessity covered world history since Casals was an outspoken peace activist after the experience of WWII and the Spanish Civil War. He discovered the suites while he was foraging used sheet music stores in Barcelona when he was thirteen, and they became a lifelong trademark work. He made his first recording of the suites in 1936 while in exile to England, when the Battle of Madrid was raging. After the war, he refused to play in countries that supported, or even recognized, Franco, including the United States. He broke his vow only in 1958, when he performed in Manhattan as part of a United Nations concert, alarmed by the threat of nuclear war.

The personal reflections in the gigue chapters gave the book a depth of character that went beyond the biographies (and in Bach's case, informed speculation) of the two musical giants. Siblin learned a prelude on guitar, joined a community choir to sing a cantata, and even took a couple of cello lessons, all to get a deeper appreciation for Bach's music. His drive, coupled with the dual biographies, propelled the book forward, made me eager to read another chapter. Siblin's background in journalism informed his writing and made the book easier to read. Between his writing style and the short chapters, The Cello Suites is an entertaining read that I could read late at night when a scholarly book would have required too much concentration.

3 comments:

Rex said...

The Bach Cello Suites have been a top favourite of mine since I first heard one of the preludes on a Hanna Barbera (I think) cartoon when I was a boy (some 50 years ago now). It began a long search for a rendition that filled me with the awe and beauty I could tell they contained. For years the Fournier version was my favourite, but still I wanted something more sublime - and in the last 4 or 5 years they have arrived!! I had to make this comment to suggest 2 versions of the Suites that for my ears and heart are way ahead of any others, and leave me needing no others. The first is by the French cellist, Jean-Guihen Queyras, so beautiful that I still gasp in wonder at the music of Bach and the musicality of Queyras whenever I play them. This version is also available on emusic. The other which I adore is by the not so well known but nevertheless extraordinary Jewish cellist, Gavriel Lipkind. His version is maybe more visceral, and energetic, but no less sublime for that. I would not be without either of these versions, which for me leave every other version I know in the dust. A bit like the violin sonatas and partitas of Isabelle Faust! Unfortunately the Lipkind Cello Suites are a bit harder to come by - and I'm not aware of any down-loadable version (emusic did have them but doesn't seem to now) apart from some excerpts on his own site. Well worth listening to!
Now you have put me in search of the Eric Siblin book :)
I have enjoyed your site for some time now. Thanks for your work.

Rex said...

I am pleased to say I was wrong. The Gavriel Lipkind version of the Bach Cello Suites are back up on emusic!

Caleb Deupree said...

Hi Rex, thanks for the suggestions. I've used all my emusic credits for the month, but have marked both versions as saved for later.