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

Pablo Casals, the great Catalan cellist, happened to purchase a second-hand copy of the 1866 edition of the Bach cello suites (edited by the great Leipzig cellist Friedrich Wilhelm Grutzmacher, who died in 1903) in a bookstore in Barcelona in 1890. There are three 18th century original manuscripts of the Bach cello suites, none of them in Bach's handwriting but all three are contemporaneous with Bach. At least one of them was copied out by Bach's wife, not surprising since she was his copyist. While the title of this book is "the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece," in fact no one was searching for the cello suites, which had never been lost (there are actually fifty-some editions of these suites). Casals did not "search" for the suites, nor did he "find" them. Perhaps in order to plump up some mystery issue to keep readers turning the page, the author does not make this clear until you are far into the book. I found this annoying, as if the author didn't trust the reader to decide that the intertwined lives of Bach and Casals would be interesting enough to hold your attention. In fact, the book has a wealth of interesting details about Bach's life and personality and brings Casals deservedly back into the public eye. Unfortunately, the author's description of the suites themselves is long on descriptive adjectives but short on actual musical interpretation or understanding. The cellist Walter Joachim understandably told the author to learn the cello if he really wanted to understand the cello suites; what he really meant was "try to understand something about classical music." It's admirable that a pop critic became a fan of this music but this quote sums up his lack of basic musical knowledge: "Bach implies harmony.... He hints at it, suggests it, plants the seed of harmony." (p. 56). Clearly some basic music analytical skills are lacking here. In any event, worth reading for the stories of two great men and their times.Get more detail about The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.