Promotional Information

A unique Companion to J S Bach's iconic Cello Suites from internationally-renowned cellist Steven Isserlis

About the Author

Steven Isserlis enjoys a unique and multi-faceted career as soloist, chamber musician and educator. He appears regularly with the world's leading orchestras, gives recitals every season in major musical centres, devises fascinating chamber music programmes, performs with many period-instrument ensembles, plays and writes for children, and with many living composers. He has written two children's books, and gives masterclasses worldwide. For the past eighteen years he has been Artistic Director of the International Musicians' Seminar atPrussia Cove, Cornwall.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR SCHUMAN'S ADVICE TO YOUNG MUSICIANS "How much wisdom can be packed into one slim volume? Isserlis has taken Schumann's aphorisms for young musicians and set them in a modern context from the point of view of one of today's outstanding performers. The result is humourous, down-to-earth and quirky." -- Financial Times Book of the Year "With deft prose - clear enough for children, profound enough for professionals - he meditates concisely on Schumann's pointers towards essential musicianship ... No musician or music lover should be without it." -- BBC Music Magazine "This book is an absolute joy from start to finish. So much so that I read it in one sitting, busily making notes in the margin and nodding my head in agreement." -- The Cross Eyed Pianist

"Isserlis has done the impossible. He has given the listener something new, and indeed something outstandingly good . . . This recording [of Bach's Cello Suites] can sit proudly on the shelf alongside the great recordings of Casals and Rostropovich. In fact, I may find myself picking it up as the favorite." -- BBC Radio 3, CD Review Disc of the Week "This is the most wonderful cello-playing, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music [Bach's Cello Suites), as well as the most musically alert and vivid . . . few will fail to be charmed by Isserlis's sweet singing tone, his perfectly voiced chords and superb control of articulation and dynamic . . . a disc many will want to return to again and again." -- Gramophone Magazine "In his writing, as in his playing, Steven makes hard work seem effortless. He's the master of the material, yet always able to make it accessible. In The Bach Cello Suites he explains often difficult technical detail with great joy and humor. For someone like me, who doesn't know their gavotte from their elbow, it is an absolute treat to be led to this sublime music by such an enthusiastic expert." -- Michael Palin "Striking...A companion book to keep close, to dog-ear and take on the train, the start of a conversation not the end of the argument." -- Spectator "Isserlis produces an illuminating, accessible and detailed analysis of one of Bach's seminal works." -- Observer "The book I've always wanted: an accessible, eloquent guide to the world's greatest -- and maybe most elusive -- pieces of music. And written by the man I'd want to tell me about it. This is such a delight." -- Derren Brown