J.S. Bach - Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major, BWV 1010 (1717-23) {Florian Berner}

Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites and Brandenburg Concertos; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations, The Well-Tempered Clavier and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.

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Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major, BWV 1010

1. Prélude (0:00)
2. Allemande (3:56)
3. Courante (7:48)
4. Sarabande (11:27)
5. Bourrée I (15:34)
6. Bourrée II
7. Gigue (20:25)

Florian Berner, cello
(cello by Nicolò Gagliano, Naples, 1819)
https://florianberner.com/

The six Cello Suites, BWV 1007–1012, are suites for unaccompanied cello. They are some of the most frequently performed solo compositions ever written for cello. Bach most likely composed them during the period 1717–1723, when he served as Kapellmeister in Köthen. The title given on the cover of the Anna Magdalena Bach manuscript was Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso (Suites for cello solo without bass).

The majority opinion seems to be that the cello suites were composed before the violin solo pieces, from around 1717 to 1723 (see Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_S...) ). Unfortunately no holograph of Bach's survives to shed light on the dating of these pieces. The copy made by his wife Anna Magdalena (P 269) is dated by RISM as being from 1727-1731 on the basis of paper watermarks. Kellner's copy is likewise undated but estimated to be of approximately the same date (ca.1726). These two are generally considered to be the most authoritative manuscript sources. There is also considerable speculation about the nature of the instrument the suites were composed for. Suite No.6 calls for a 5-stringed cello of some sort (violoncello piccolo or possibly viola pomposa), but the speculation is by no means limited to these two.

While the date of the first edition is often given as 1825, the one issued by Janet et Cotelle in Paris, apparently supervised by Louis-Pierre Norblin (1781-1854) - then cellist for the King of France (see preface) - would appear to be the first as 1824 is most likely the date of publication on the basis of the street addresses on the scan found here. Janet et Cotelle absorbed the publisher Boïeldieu jeune in May of 1824 (Boïeldieu is mentioned on the cover) and operated at the two addresses given until the middle of 1825, when the number of the Rue St. Honoré address went from 125 to 123. Later in 1825 they absorbed the catalogue Ozi et Cie. and added another address. The item here therefore was most likely printed between the middle of 1824 to the early part of 1825.