One evening, not long after ending a stint as the pop music
critic at the Montreal Gazette, 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 an epic
quest that would unravel three centuries of intrigue, politics, and
passion. Part biography, part music history, and part mystery, The
Cello Suites weaves together three dramatic narratives: Bach''s
composition of the suites and the manuscript''s subsequent
disappearance in the eighteenth century; Pablo Casals''s historic
discovery of the music in Spain in the late nineteenth century, and
his popularization of the suites several decades later; and
Siblin''s own infatuation with the suites at the dawn of the
twenty-first century. His search to learn all he can about the
music leads Siblin to Barcelona, where Pablo Casals, just thirteen
and in possession of his first cello, roamed the back streets with
his father, in search of sheet music. To their amazement, they
found Bach''s lost "Cello Suites" tucked in a dark corner. Casals
would play the suites every day for twelve years before finally
performing them in public--and making them his own. As Siblin
pursues the mysteries that continue to haunt this music more than
250 years after its composer''s death, he asks the questions that
have stumped modern scholars: why did Bach compose the suites for
the cello, which was considered a lowly instrument in his day? And
what happened to the original manuscript of the suites, which
vanished after being hastily copied by Bach''s second wife? The
Cello Suites is a journey of discovery, fueled by the transcendent
power of a musical masterpiece--and of the listeners who, like
Siblin, have loved it through the ages.