Eric Siblin //
The Cello Suites by Eric Siblin matches Bach’s composing: it weaves three narratives together into one story, creating a gripping polyfonic novel: Part biography, part music history and part literary mystery. The first features Johann Sebastian Bach and the missing manuscript of his suites from the eighteenth century, the second follows Pablo Casals and the historic discovery of the music in Spain in the late nineteenth century and the third is Eric Siblin's own infatuation with the suites in the twenty-first century.
This leads Siblin to the streets of Barcelona and a Belgian mansion, to interviews with cellists Mischa Maisky, Anner Bylsma, and Pieter Wispelwey, and to archives, festivals, and conferences. He writes about Puerto Rico and Germany and about his cello lessons — all in pursuit of answers to the mysteries that continue to haunt this piece of music more than 250 years after its composer's death.
The book handles the same structure as the music of Bach’s Cello Suites. There are six chapters in the book just as there are 6 Cello Suites. The chapters are all divided into parts of the Suite they represent. Siblin succeeded in giving the content of the chapters the same character as the suits. Together they tell the stories of Bach, Casals and Siblin.
Booktunes loves to link you to The Cello Suites performed by Pablo Casals, to accompany while reading Siblin's beautiful book.
text by Rosalie van der Meulen / photo by Fabio Nascimento