NRR Project: Casals plays the Bach Cello Suites

 

NRR Project: The Six Cello Suites

Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

Performed by Pablo Casals

Recorded 1936, 1938, 1939

2 hr. 10 min.

This recording is unprecedented. The Bach Cello Suites are six pieces, each consisting of six movements, starting with a theme and then developing into movements based on various dance styles of his day. Like all of Bach’s work, the Suites are both mathematically precise and deeply emotional, raging from deep sadness to pure joy.

Pablo Casals (1876-1973) was born in Spain to a musical father. A child prodigy, Casals had mastered many instruments before choosing to devote himself to the cello. When he was 13, he found the music for the Suites in a second-hand music shop in Barcelona. For he next 13 years, he practiced the Suites daily. Finally, he began to perform the Suites in public.

Soon his reputation grew. He won awards; he played for Queen Victoria; he amassed an international reputation. However, it wasn’t until the Spanish Civil War and World War II uprooted him and sent him to travel in the Western countries that he felt ready to record the suites. Over several sessions in different cities, he accumulated a complete recording of all six pieces.

There is a lack of indication of emphasis in Bach’s manuscript, which leaves the interpretation up to the individual performer. Casals adopts a romantic approach to the music, bowing aggressively and passionately. The result is a revelatory experience, one that combines supreme technical competence with deep feeling. To sit down and really listen to the music is an experience that transports the listener to a higher plane. Casals took a bravura piece for solo instrument and made it into a personal statement that still resounds today. Even after countless subsequent recordings, his original take on the Cello Suites stands monumentally above them.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Nest time: Coleman Hawkins plays Body and Soul.