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I was at a wedding on Saturday and during the signing of the registers (which took place off in one of the back rooms of the church) we got to enjoy a live performance of some solo cello music. One of the two pieces played was a pair of movements from a cello sonata by Vivaldi, which was unfamiliar to me but very pleasant. The other was the prelude from J. S. Bach's third cello suite.
Bach's cello suites are amongs my all-time favourite music in any genre, although I've not previously had the pleasure of hearing them performed live, other than by myself on the viola. Much as I enjoy them as viola pieces I think they work even better an octave lower in the original cello version.
Suite 3 is, along with the first suite, one of the ones I'm most familiar with as they are, to my mind, the easiest ones to play and, for that reason, the ones I tend to play the most. I once played the last 3 movements from suite 1 at a concert, although most of the time I just play them at home for my own enjoyment and edification. In fact, they are pretty much the only thing I've played on the viola in the last couple of years and they alone give me plenty of reason to keep my viola. I have also got an arrangement of them (transposed up a 5th higher still) for violin, but find them a lot less satisfying at that pitch.
In addition to the cello suites, I have got a copy of the dots for Bach's solo violin stuff. That's also great fun to play, although several steps further beyond my level of technical ability than the cello suites. Whereas I can play several movements of the cello suites passably well on the viola, and could probably get at least two of the suites up to a reasonable amateur performance standard without too much trouble, I can only (so far) manage some of the easier passages within selected movements of the violin sonatas at anything like a reasonable standard.
I definitely agree with Organ Morgan from Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood who, when asked who he liked best, replied "Oh, Bach without any doubt. Bach every time for me."
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