Composer: Johann Bernhard Bach
Performer: Thüringer Bach Collegium
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Audite
Release: 2019
Size: 1.62 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Orchestral Suite No. 1
01. I. Ouverture
02. II. Air
03. III. Rondeau
04. IV. Loure
05. V. Fantaisie
06. VI. Passepied
Orchestral Suite No. 2
07. I. Ouverture
08. II. Gavotte en Rondeau
09. III. Sarabande
00. IV. Bourrée: Gayement
11. V. Air. Grave
12. VI. Menuett
13. VII. Gigue
14. VIII. La Tempête
Orchestral Suite No. 3
15. I. Ouverture
16. II. Air
17. III. Les plaisirs
18. IV. Menuet I – Menuet II – Menuet I
19. V. Air
20. VI. Rigadon
21. VII. Courante
22. VIII. Gavotte en Rondeaux
Orchestral Suite No. 4
23. I. Ouverture
24. II. Caprice I
25. III. Marche
26. IV. Passepied I – Passepied II – Passepied I
27. V. Caprice II
28. VI. Air. Lentement
29. VII. La Joye
30. VIII. Caprice III
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”. From 1703, Bernard Bach was engaged as harpsichordist in this noble orchestra. His Orchestral Suites provide the only surviving “soundtrack” of the illustrious musical life at the Eisenach court during the 1710s and 20s. And what a soundtrack: cosmopolitan, and truly European, with sparkling virtuosic brilliance, as if written by a fiery Italian, whilst displaying the elegant taste of a noble Frenchman. In other words, the “mixed taste”, for which the best German composers of the late baroque period were famous, in its finest form. Little wonder then that Bernhard Bach’s suites became core repertoire for Johann Sebastian Bach’s Leipzig Collegium Musicum, also influencing his compositions.
All this provides sufficient motivation for the Thuringian Bach Collegium to continue their exploration through the Middle German courts for their second recording and, with unbridled enthusiasm in their music-making, to bring these jewels of the early Thuringian orchestral music back to life. Bon Appétit!