Cello Suite No. 4 in E‑Flat Major

Like the opening of No. 3, Suite No. 4 begins with a “Prelude” that takes the player through a number of technical challenges. The opening gesture—a two-octave leap from a low to a high E flat—sets the tone, leading to a constant stream of broken (arpeggiated) chords and some awkward hand positions. Halfway through, freer cadenza-like passages are mixed with the earlier widely-spaced figuration, as if to teach the player how to vary and improvise around repetitive melodic patterns. A formal “Allemande” leads to a playful “Courante”, whose melodic line constantly defies expectation. Bach follows this with a sonorous and aristocratic “Sarabande”, featuring some of the most sustained use of cello chords heard in the suites. The two following “Bourrées” are chalk and cheese: the first a sinuous solo line, the second, much shorter, squarer and simply harmonised. The concluding “Gigue” is unstoppable, generating terrific momentum from the same rhythmic pattern throughout. 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.