One of the glories of Baroque music and the greatest music ever written for the solo cello, the unaccompanied cello suites were thought to be academic exercises and had never been played in all their entirety before Pablo Casals did it in the late 1930’s. When he was 13 and supporting his music lessons by playing for cash at a suburban bistro, he discovered a dusty copy of the suites in a second-hand music shop. He studied and worked on them for 12 years before playing them before the public, and it was many years later that he agreed to record them.

Who Bach wrote them for is a mystery. The earliest manuscript we have was done by Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena in 1730, but the suites are from an earlier time, probably in the early 1720’s when Bach was composer at the court of Prince Leopold Anhalt-Cothen, who was himself an accomplished player on the viola de gamba, an ancestor of the modern cello. But could the prince been enough of a virtuoso to play these? Doubtful. They could have been composed for members of the prince’s orchestra. Nobody knows, and as far as we know, no one at the time made any mention of it in writing.

Each of Bach's cello suites is in six dance-like movements. Except for the first, a Prelude, a free improvisational piece based on a small motif or pattern. It sets the mood for the suite, and is often thematically related to the other movements..

Then follows an Allemande, a stately French or German dance (Allemande is the French word for 'German'), with a prominent beat. Next comes a Courante (literally 'running'), a lively dance in 3-time. Bach's cello suites contain examples of the both the Italian and French styles. The Italian style is with semiquavers and quite vigorous, while the French style tends to quavers and is a little more refined.

The fourth movement is a Sarabande, a slow dance originally from Spain (or possibly of Oriental origin and developed in Spain). This is in 3-time, with a strong emphasis on the second beat. This movement frequently contains the emotional heart of the suite, and the remaining movements to an extent relax away from it.

The final movements are a pair of contrasting Minuets, Bourrées or Gavottes (depending on the suite), followed by a big, bouncing Gigue. This dance in compound time is not a dance of the court like the others, and would have been familiar to ordinary people (its English equivalent is the jig).

I don’t want to give you the idea that the suites are repetitive and monotonous, because this isn’t so. Each dance movement is explored so fully by Bach that, by the end, he has used these structures to express deep and profound emotion. My linguistic ability isn’t up to explaining the whys and hows. You’ll have to listen to the suites yourself!

In my player now: J.S. Bach: 6 Suites Sonatas for Cello,BWV1007-12. - Yo-Yo Ma , cello, Sony Classical S2K63203

Although I practically teethed on the famous Casals’ recordings (EMI CHS5 66215-2), Yo-Yo Ma’s is probably the finest modern rendition going. His tone, articulation and clear objectivity are without peer. His talent and total dedication to the music is beyond question. From the first drawing of the bow, Ma’s technique is awesome.

Any dummy can perform a big romantic cello concerto, but not many musicians have this combination of intelligence and finesse, not to mention blood, sweat and tears to reach Ma’s level of performance in these pieces.