Piturro #1 3, #6 14, #17 24, #26 32, #35, #37 39

Jean-François Paillard and his chamber orchestra perform Arcangelo Corelli's "Concerti grossi, Op. 6". The chamber orchestra of Paillard is perhaps best known from their 1968 recording of Pachelbel's "Canon", which nearly single-handedly brought the piece from obscurity into great renown.

These six suites are English in name only, conforming largely to the accepted form and order of a suite of dances, providing Bach with a template for his unrivalled contrapuntal skill in which he was utterly at home. The result is a set of pieces with wonderful rhythmic variation and delightful fluency of lines, and these are among Bach's finest keyboard works, in my view. They are inventive, endlessly rewarding and, above all, hugely enjoyable to listen to.