J.S. Bach: Complete cello suites

Recorded 1936-39, mono

At the age of 13, Pablo Casals found a copy of Bach's Suites, of whose existence he knew nothing, in a second-hand music shop in Barcelona, where he was studying the cello and playing in a café to earn money to support himself. The Suites were a revelation to Casals, who immediately recognised their exceptional importance. For the next twelve years he studied the scores and worked on his interpretation of the works. Only when he was 25 did he have the courage to play one of them in public. At the turn of the 19th century, Bach's instrumental music was rarely performed and was considered 'cold' and academic, a notion Casals was anxious to disprove. This he triumphantly did, but he could not be persuaded to record the Cello Suites for another 30-odd years, when, after endless urging from Fred Gaisberg, HMV's famous recording manager, he set down these definitive performances (first in London in 1936 [Nos.2 & 3] and then in Paris in 1938 and 1939 [Nos.1 & 4-6]).

"From the profound contemplative quality of the G major Sarabande or the C minor Allemande to the zest of the C major Bourree, the breadth and grandeur of the D minor Suite's Prelude and the gravity of its Sarabande, the lightness of the E flat Allemande and Bourrees or the C minor Gavotte, the raptness of the C minor Sarabande, and the lucidity of thought behind the elaborate D major Allemande, EMI's term ''References'' could not be more apt, since these performances remain the classic yardstick by which all later ones must be judged." Gramophone