Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major

As listeners to Bach’s suites for solo cello, we are eavesdropping on what is essentially performers’ music, conceived for the chamber. Having said that, the opening “Prelude” of Suite No. 1 is not without a touch of theatrical drama. It begins, like the first preludes of The Well-Tempered Clavier, with finger-pleasing, wide-spaced patterns elaborating simple underlying chord sequences. Halfway through, though, the soloist is freed-up and embarks on a more spontaneous, cadenza-like journey which rises to a climax in minute melodic (chromatic) steps before galloping to the final cadence. If the following “Allemande” has become stylised well beyond its original dance steps, the closing “Gigue” still has plenty of its authentic swing. It also demonstrates Bach’s love of asymmetrical structures. The second half is twice the length of the first, and wittily suggests it’s going to finish with a similar chromatic passage as ended the first, only to spin off in a new direction. About JS Bach's Cello Suites Works for an unaccompanied solo instrument—especially the cello—were rare in Bach’s day and were much more likely to have been improvised than painstakingly written down. The six solo Cello Suites (BWV 1007-12) were composed during Bach’s time at the court of Cöthen (1717-23). Although it is unlikely that they were conceived as a set, all six works follow a similar pattern. To the traditional suite—allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue—Bach added an introductory prelude and tucked in a pair of fashionable modern dances (minuets, bourrées, or gavottes) before the final gigue. Not published until 1825, it wasn’t until they were recorded by Pablo Casals in the 1930s that they began to enjoy widespread popularity.