Orchestral Suites Bach

From 1960 to 1973 Casals bequeathed his vast knowledge and led the Marlboro Festival Orchestra, whose deceptively nondescript name concealed a wealth of talent, its roster a dazzling catalog of present and future superstars. From the weekend concerts, Columbia recorded a variety of works that inspire with their depth and vitality. As recalled by producer Thomas Frost, Casals took a fresh look at old masterpieces, imbued by his vast experience, and stimulated "a crisp spontaneity undulled by the routine of repeat performances."

The music of the Eighteenth century features delicate textures and refinement as well as expressiveness and energy. This was the age of the smaller chamber orchestra, and Bach was one of the compositional geniuses of the century. In this recording, the award-winning Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, which specializes in authentic renditions on fine reproduction period instruments, performs four delightful Bach suites, including No. 1 in C, No. 2 in B Minor and Nos. 3 and 4 in D Major.

Most piano duet arrangements were meant for the home rather than the concert hall. When you sight-read orchestral reductions at the piano, your physical involvement with the material “fills in” the missing instrumental color. Even with skillful four-hand “de-orchestrations” like Max Reger’s of the Bach Orchestral Suites, listeners run the risk of “registral fatigue”. In the main, the Speidel-Trenkner piano duo circumvents these limitations through canny pianistic means. In the C major Suite’s Forlane, for example, the oboe’s hornpipe-like melody bounces on a featherweight accompaniment.

A superb recording of the Bach's Orchestral Suites transcribed for a piano duet. It makes a great change to hear these excellent pieces of Bach played as a piano duet to the standard orchestral version. I am absolutely delighted with it and it is great that I now have both the original orchestral version (complete) and this complete version too. For anyone who enjoys piano transcriptions of orchestral works, this recording is highly recommended.

Italian Concerto, BWV 971 : Among the best known of Bach’s solo harpsichord works, the Concerto each Italienischen Gusto was published in 1735, as the first half of the second volume of the Clavier-Übung (with the French Overture as the second half).