Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor

Originally, Bach may have written just the first three suites for solo cello, topping this up to the standard set of six some years later. The shape and style of the last two suites seems to support this. Both are somewhat longer and more technically demanding than the others, and in addition Suite No. 5 employs unusual tuning, with the top string tuned down from an A to G. The “Prelude” is the longest of the set, uniquely cast in the orchestral French overture style, where a slow, richly harmonised introduction leads into a faster section, in which Bach invites us to imagine the entries of other instruments as part of a fugal dialogue. The famous “Sarabande” provides a moment of lonely stillness, spinning out a series of sighs that join together to form longer phrases, dipping down to their resting points before finally, unexpectedly swooping upwards. A jerky “Gigue” concludes the suite on an unsettled note. About J.S. 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.