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Born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1685, Johann Sebastian Bach was a sublime baroque-era composer, revered for his work’s musical complexities and stylistic innovations. He came from a family of musicians, stretching back several generations. His father, Johann Ambrosius, worked as the town musician in Eisenach, and taught young Johann to play the violin. The Six Suites for Solo Cello, composed around 1720, are generally regarded as the first and greatest masterpieces ever written for the instrument, though they were not widely known before the early 20th century. Pablo Casals first began to popularize the suites, after discovering an edition in a bargain shop in Barcelona in 1889 when he was 13. Since then, the Suites have been performed and recorded countless times, with a variety of interpretative approaches. Until recently, these could often be rather academic and formal, as it used to be thought that baroque music was mostly about form. The cellist on these recordings, Marina Tarasova, takes a radically different approach, one which is inspirational and which infuses the works with vitality and spirit. Acclaimed Russian cellist Tarasova is a world-renowned cellist with many recordings to her name for Musical Concepts and Northern Flowers among other labels, and this is her first recording for Divine Art. She has won international competitions in Prague, Florence and Paris and has a wide repertoire covering works of composers from the 17th century to the 20th century. Bach’s Cello Suites are among the most profound and ingenious of all classical music works. Highlights include Suite No. 1 in G major, with its prelude mainly consisting of arpeggiated chords and well known from its use in television and films, as well as the technically demanding Suite No. 4 in E and exhilarating Suite No. 6 in D major. ‘Her playing is generous in tone, full-blooded in expression, passionate and confident, evidently fired by love for and commitment to the music.’ – Gramophone.