Orchestral Suites Bach

Johann Bernhard Bach’s four Orchestral Suites, composed for the court orchestra of the cultured duke of Saxony-Eisenach, are amongst the most varied and sophisticated musical works of the high baroque period in Middle Germany. It was not by chance that Georg Philipp Telemann, a one-time Kapellmeister at Eisenach, commented retrospectively: “I have to praise this orchestra, arranged for the most part according to the French style, for it surpassed the very famous Parisian opera orchestra.”

Over the course of more than half a century, Wolfgang Rübsam has consistently brought new insights to bear on the keyboard music of Bach, firstly in sets of the canonic organ music for Philips, then the same for Naxos. In the last few years, his musicianship and understanding of Bach enriched by those decades of experience, he has turned to the harpsichord/piano repertoire for Brilliant Classics. A series of critically acclaimed albums has shed new light on The Well-Tempered Clavier, the Goldberg Variations, the Partitas and Toccatas with Rübsam’s performance of them on a lautenwerk – a ‘lute-harpsichord’ with a distinctive chime and colour which Bach himself would have been familiar with.

The four orchestral suites BWV 1066–1069 (called ouvertures by their composer) are four suites by Johann Sebastian Bach from the years 1724–1731. The name ouverture refers only in part to the opening movement in the style of the French overture, in which a majestic opening section in relatively slow dotted-note rhythm in duple meter is followed by a fast fugal section, then rounded off with a short recapitulation of the opening music. More broadly, the term was used in Baroque Germany for a suite of dance-pieces in French Baroque style preceded by such an ouverture.

Towards the end of its 40th anniversary year the Academy of Ancient Music, with its musical director Richard Egarr, releases a significant new recording of JS Bach's four Orchestral Suites BWV1066-69.

Johann Bernhard Bach’s Orchestral Suites are amongst the most varied musical works of the high baroque period in Middle Germany – and they formed part of the core repertoire for Johann Sebastian Bach’s Leipzig Collegium Musicum. Sparkling virtuosic brilliance, as if written by a fiery Italian, whilst displaying the elegant taste of a noble Frenchman – in short, “mixed taste” at its finest. Continuation of the successful co-operation with the Thüringer Bach Collegium (Vol. 1 receives outstanding reviews in the press) Bon Appétit!

Concerto Copenhagen, the Danish National Baroque Orchestra, has developed into one of Scandinavia’s leading Baroque orchestras and has earned its place in the front ranks of the world’s most fascinating and innovative orchestras of this kind. The orchestra now turns to Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous Orchestral Suites. Although extensive research has been conducted for many years, it is not known when the suites were composed. Today everything indicates that the suites were written much earlier than is assumed and then merely had to be adapted to Bach’s new Leipzig circumstances. It is therefore not unusual for them to be performed – as on this recording – without timpani and trumpets. Although the especially popular third suite is a ceremonious, sumptuous work, the material contributed by the wind instruments is hardly of considerable significance. The suite enjoys a top ranking on the charts of Bach’s most attractive and best-loved works. Some of his most popular melodies can be found in their movements. Suite No. 2 in B minor ends with the immensely famous flute solo of the Badinerie (a “joke” comparable to the Italian “scherzo”) frequently employed on television as a signature tune. Here the Johann Sebastian Bach we encounter is not the one who quests for deep spiritual knowledge or probes hidden aspects of the human soul. On the other hand, he rarely wrote mellower, more uplifting melodies or simpler, more elegantly designed dance rhythms than in these twenty-four movements brimming with magical variations, atmosphere, and rich color.

The English Baroque Soloists has established itself among the world's leading period instrument orchestras. Founder and artistic director John Eliot Gardiner regularly joins his English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir in opera and choral performances. The EBS has a repertoire that takes in music from the Classical period as well as the Baroque. Together, the groups launched the Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000, performing all of Bach's sacred cantatas throughout Europe.

Listeners who already know Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan from their recordings of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, violin concertos, cantatas, and Passions will know what to expect from their recording of Bach's overtures. For those listeners unfamiliar with Suzuki and the BCJ, what they can expect is bright, light, lively, and loving performances of superior virtuosity and impeccable lucidity.

Listeners who already know Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan from their recordings of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, violin concertos, cantatas, and Passions will know what to expect from their recording of Bach's overtures. For those listeners unfamiliar with Suzuki and the BCJ, what they can expect is bright, light, lively, and loving performances of superior virtuosity and impeccable lucidity. They can expect brilliant string playing, emphatic brass playing, impressive tympani playing, and, in the Third Suite, stunning flauto traverso playing. They can expect incisive tempos, clear textures, clean counterpoint, and joyous interpretations. They can also expect the occasionally odd rhythmic accents – where did the offbeat accents come from in the Third Ouverture's Menuet? – and, every so often, a certain sense of superficiality – the Fourth Ouverture's happiness is unfeigned but sometimes seems a shade shallow. But, for listeners who don't already know Suzuki and the BCJ's work, the set is a splendid place to start. BIS' super audio sound puts the BCJ right in your living room.