Bach Cello Suites - Part II

The introductory preludes to the Six Suites are remarkably diverse in style and structure, sometimes extremely lyrical, sometimes full of technical challenges. Doubts remain about the exact instrument for which Bach wrote his famous suites. Suite No. 5, for instance, requires a scordatura (whereby the fourth string has to be tuned lower) and was transcribed to lute by Bach himself. Equally mysterious is the instrument for which the composer wrote his Suite no. 6: the tessitura is higher than in the other suites and the music seems to have been written for a five-string 'violoncello piccolo'.

Music Chapel