Classical Music | Cello Music

Recorded on 03/07/2010, uploaded on 03/08/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Suite for solo cello BWV 1011      Johann Sebastian Bach

Prélude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Gavotte
Gigue

The Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello were most likely composed while Bach was Kapellmeister in Cöthen. The suites utilize a variety of technical devices and traverse a wide emotional range making them some of the most intimate chamber music, not only within Bach’s oeuvre, but also within the entire cello repertoire.

Like the Violin Suites that come from roughly the same time period, the Cello Suites were long neglected after Bach’s death. While the Violin Suites benefited from the “Bach Revival” carried out by such prominent Romantic musicians like Felix Mendelssohn and Joseph Joachim, it wasn’t until the cellist Pablo Casals began studying and performing the Cello Suites in the early 1900s, and later recorded them in 1925, that they gained in public popularity.

No autograph manuscript exists for the suites and this has ultimately led to some confusion as to the instrument Bach intended they be performed on (if he even intended any particular instrument at all) since several forms of the cello were in practical use during the 18^th century. There is a likely possibility that the final suite in D major was intended for a five-string cello, referred to as the violoncello piccolo and having a fifth string tuned to E above the A string, since three sources refer to an instrument “a cinq cordes” (with five strings). Of the six suites, this one is the only to exceed G above middle C and to utilize the Tenor C clef, thus strengthening the argument for a five-stringed instrument.

The fifth suite in C minor was originally written in scordatura with the A string tuned down a whole step to G. Today, versions exist in the original tuning as well as with standard tuning. Some chords that occur in the suite must be simplified if standard tuning is used. On the other hand, standard tuning facilitates the melodic passages of the suite. Bach also transcribed this suite for the lute and his autograph manuscript for it is extant.

This is a BGR recording