Eric Siblin, a pop music critic whose classical education is wanting at best, shares his take on Bach’s six cello suites in his book “The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece.” The book is the result of Siblin’s pseudo-obsessive exploration into the six suites, despite an overall unfamiliarity with Bach and classical music in general.

Siblin was inspired by the same Casals recording that brought the suites into the spotlight of cello literature, and he begins the book with an attempt to shed light on what NY Times writer Janet Maslin identifies as the suites’ “elusiveness.” Bach’s intentions are still murky, as the alternate tuning required by some movements suggests the works may not have been written for cello. Or if they were, that the outliers among the suites do not belong in the same collection that modern musicians have come to accept as an indisputable volume.

Delving into the histories of both Bach and Casals, Siblin applies the musicians’ respective political and social environments to his analysis of the cello suites. Still, Siblin’s research was incomplete until he attempted to play the cello himself. While he didn’t acquire the prowess necessary for Bach, Maslin found his writing “entertaining if not exactly new.”

Check out Janet Maslin’s Book Review over at the NY Times.

Posted on November 30th, 2009 at 10:47 pm | Filed under General |