Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major

Telltale differences in length and style suggest that Bach’s last three suites for solo cello were added to the set some years after he finished composing the first three. While No. 5 requires unusual tuning, the Suite No. 6 actually requires a different instrument—one with an extra, fifth string. The suite starts with a “Prelude”, which has the ebullient character of a gigue, and we immediately notice that the extra top string allows sequences and melodies to travel further upwards. The “Allemande” is so lavishly embroidered with filigree decoration that it is hardly an allemande anymore—more of a prayerful aria—lasting longer in performance than any other of the set. The serene “Sarabande” is melodically pared back but richly harmonised (and hard to play on a modern cello without a fifth string). Things get almost out of hand in the virtuosic “Gigue”, with its vast three-octave range and testing acrobatics for fingers and bow. 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.