The Bach Cello Suites: A Companion

Review In his writing, as in his playing, Steven makes hard work seem effortless. He's the master of the material, yet always able to make it accessible. In The Bach Cello Suites he explains often difficult technical detail with great joy and humour. For someone like me, who doesn't know their gavotte from their elbow, it is an absolute treat to be led to this sublime music by such an enthusiastic expert. -- Michael Palin This is a very important book indeed. One of the best of its kind. Written by a real musician, who understands and loves Bach and his wonderful compositions. -- Andras Schiff Published On: 2022-08-01 The book I've always wanted: an accessible, eloquent guide to the world's greatest - and maybe most elusive - pieces of music. And written by the man I'd want to tell me about it. This is such a delight. -- Derren Brown Steven Isserlis is one of the world's great cellists, and his recordings of the Bach cello suites in 2007 were critically acclaimed for the integrity of their interpretation. Now he brings that insight to bear in a highly engaging book "for music lovers of all shapes and sizes". From a brief biography of Bach, through the historical context and emotional significance of the suites, Isserlis produces an illuminating, accessible and detailed analysis of one of Bach's seminal works. -- Hannah Beckerman ― Observer Striking . . . What's so beguiling about Isserlis's approach is that he feels the awe and does it anyway. This is a book only a performer could have written; only a cellist who has had his hands in the guts of the thing, weighing every semiquaver and stretching out the sinews of each chord and feeling their tension, could take us this close . . . A companion book to keep close, to dog-ear and take on the train, the start of a conversation not the end of the argument. After all, as Isserlis acknowledges: 'The truth lies within the music, not in anything outside it.' -- Alexandra Coghlan ― The Spectator This is the most wonderful cello-playing, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music [Bach's Cello Suites), as well as the most musically alert and vivid . . . few will fail to be charmed by Isserlis's sweet singing tone, his perfectly voiced chords and superb control of articulation and dynamic . . . a disc many will want to return to again and again. ― Gramophone Magazine (winner of a Gramophone Award) How much wisdom can be packed into one slim volume? Isserlis has taken Schumann's aphorisms for young musicians and set them in a modern context from the point of view of one of today's outstanding performers. The result is humourous, down-to-earth and quirky. ― Financial Times, Books of the Year (on Robert Schuman’s Advice to Young Musicians) As Isserlis outlines the background to the suites with a deftness of touch reminiscent of his actual playing, one is constantly reminded what is truly essential from a performer's perspective ... Most cherishable of all is his movement-by-movement survey of the entire opus, which by some subtle osmosis reminds us why we fell in love with the finest of all cello works in the first place. ― BBC Music Magazine 'Best Books about Classical Music Published On: 2021-11-30 Steven Isserlis' new guide explores Bach's six Cello Suites in a series of discussions generously strewn with insights, illuminations, and literary allusions culminating in a movement-by-movement description of each of the six Suites. All of this is written as if he were conversing with friends -- Laurence Vittes ― Strings Magazine Product Description A unique Companion to J S Bach's iconic Cello Suites from internationally-renowned cellist Steven Isserlis. 'Isserlis is the master of the material, yet always able to make it accessible . . . It is an absolute treat to be led to this sublime music by such an ethusiastic expert.' MICHAEL PALIN 'The book I've always wanted: an accessible, eloquent guide to the world's greatest - and maybe m