Christopher Howell - Johann Sebastian Bach: French Suites and Other Works (2025)
BAND/ARTIST: Christopher Howell
- Title: Johann Sebastian Bach: French Suites and Other Works
- Year Of Release: 2025
- Label: Da Vinci Classics
- Genre: Classical
- Quality: flac lossless (tracks)
- Total Time: 02:19:02
- Total Size: 492 mb
- WebSite: Album Preview
Tracklist
CD1
01. Praeludium und Fughetta, BWV 899: Praeludium
02. Praeludium und Fughetta, BWV 899: Fughetta
03. French Suite No.1 in D Minor, BWV 812: I. Allemande
04. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: II. Courante
05. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: III. Sarabande
06. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: IV. Menuet I
07. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: V. Menuet II
08. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: VI. Gigue
09. Fantasie sur un Rondeau in C Minor, BWV 918
10. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: I. Allemande
11. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: II. Courante
12. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: III. Sarabande
13. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: IV. Air
14. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: V. Menuet (I)
15. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813a: VI. Menuet II
16. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: VII. Gigue
17. Prelude in B Minor, BWV 923
18. French Suite No.3 in B Minor, BWV 814: I. Allemande
19. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: II. Courante
20. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: III. Sarabande
21. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: IV. Anglaise
22. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: V. Menuet
23. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: VI. Trio
24. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814a: VII. Menuet II
25. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: VII. Gigue
26. Fugue in B Minor, BWV 951
CD2
01. French Suite No.4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: I. Praeludium
02. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: II. Allemande
03. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: III. Courante
04. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: IV. Sarabande
05. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: V. Gavotte I
06. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: VI. Gavotte II
07. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815: V. Menuet
08. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: VII. Air
09. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815: VII. Gigue
10. Der Tag der ist so freudenreich in G Major, BWV 605
11. French Suite No.5 in G Major, BWV 816: I. Allemande
12. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: II. Courante
13. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: III. Sarabande
14. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: IV. Gavotte
15. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: V. Bourrée
16. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: VI. Loure
17. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: VII. Gigue
18. Prelude in E Major, BWV 937
19. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: I. Allemande
20. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: II. Courante
21. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: III. Sarabande
22. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: IV. Gavotte
23. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: V. Polonaise
24. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: VI. Menuet
25. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: VII. Bourrée
26. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: VIII. Gigue
27. Das Wohltemperierte Klavier II: Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 878: No. 1, Preludio
28. Das Wohltemperierte Klavier II: Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 878: No. 2, Fugue
Digital technology can play strange tricks. If the standard text of the French Suites, played with all repeats and at feasible tempi, had fitted comfortably on a single CD or expanded neatly to fill two, I should never have got to know some very rewarding music.
First of all, alongside the canonical movements, there are several that were discarded from the “standard” text. How this “standard” text came to be decided is not entirely clear. The Suites were written around 1722-25 for Anna Magdalena Bach. The earliest copies do not contain all the movements we know today. Numerous copies were made by Bach’s pupils, some of them adding extra movements, but Bach himself never prepared a definitive version for publication, reserving his efforts in this direction for the more elaborate Partitas. By 1802, Bach’s biographer Forkel stated that the Suites, still awaiting publication, were usually called “French”, “because they were written in the French manner”. The title has stuck, though the Suites, like all of Bach’s music, are thoroughly cosmopolitan and are no more specifically French than anything else he wrote. With all the wealth of information available about these Suites, I have not found an answer to the simple question of when they were first published and what the publication contained. The edition by Carl Czerny (c.1841) has the same movements as most modern editions, though omitting the Minuet of no. 4, which is usually accepted as “canonical”. The first Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe (1865) had the same movements as Czerny, with a number of others relegated to an appendix.
It is these “other” movements that first aroused my curiosity. Quite a lot of pianists nowadays include at least some of these. Since this was still not enough to fill a second CD, I first considered prefacing each Suite with a Prelude and Fugue in the same key from the “48”. The E major Prelude and Fugue that concludes CD2 is a remnant of this idea. In the end I decided to seek a little further off the beaten track. Inspired by the fact that the “extra” movements include a Prelude to the Fourth Suite, I decided to look among Bach’s many single pieces for a “Prelude”, and sometimes also a Postlude, to each Suite. The idea was not to complete Bach’s work for him, but to provide six listener-friendly mini-programmes, each with a Suite as its main item.
Though the Praeludium and Fughetta that prefaces the D minor Suite has a BWV number, it is not now considered an authentic work of J.S. Bach. Those who like to keep things in the family will be pleased to know that a likely author was Bach’s son Wilhelm Friedemann. It is brief but impressive.
The Fantasie über ein Rondo, which I use to preface Suite 2, is on the other hand an extensive two-part invention. It is justly called a Rondo in the sense that the opening theme returns at strategic points, but unlike later Rondos by Mozart and other classical composers, the reprises are absorbed into the steady flow of the music.
Suite 3 is bookended here by a Prelude and Fugue in B minor which are sometimes played as a pair, though there seems no evidence this was intended. The Prelude is a very free, toccata-like piece, containing several passages where Bach simply notes chords, leaving the performer the liberty to improvise arpeggios or whatever around them. The Fugue uses a theme from Albinoni’s Trio Sonata op.1/8. This theme divides into two parts, one a striding arpeggio, the other a doleful chromatic scale. Bach develops both extensively to create one of his longest, and most powerful, single keyboard pieces.
Since the Suites are well-known, I will comment only on the extra pieces and any unusual features.
Definitely unusual is the Gigue of Suite 1, which has an angular dotted rhythm instead of the normal 6/8, making it difficult to achieve the typical spring of the Gigue. The temptation would be to smooth out the rhythm, as in Brandenburg 5, or the Courante of French Suite 4, but anyone who did this would have some hard decisions to take when the left hand starts to run in semiquavers towards the end of each part.
The “Air” of Suite 2, spelt in the English manner, is a far cry from the broad Airs of Handel, or Bach’s own in the 3rd orchestral Suite – it is a flowing dance. This Suite has an “extra” movement, a second Minuet, here played as a Trio to the first. It also has another unusual Gigue, with insistent dotted rhythms.
The Allemande of Suite 3 is a two-part invention, and perhaps the most severe movement in all the Suites. The Anglaise needs some explanation. It seems to be a Bourrée shorn of its characteristic upbeat, but why this should make it English is not clear. The second minuet here, played as a third trio, is found in the old Bach edition but I have not found it in the new one – perhaps I looked in the wrong place. It is an attractive, graceful piece, well contrasted with the other Minuets.
One of the extra movements to Suite 4, as I remarked above, is a Prelude. The general supposition is that Bach (or somebody later) discarded it because it would have been illogical to preface just one of the suites with a prelude. This piece actually contains one of the few “French” features to be found in these suites. As often with Couperin, a considerable part of it consists of arpeggiated chords, which performers are free to realize as they choose. Another extra movement is the second Gavotte. This was likely eliminated since it is considerably more developed than any of the other dance movements, and therefore disproportionate to the rest. It seems a pity to lose such a splendidly inventive piece, even if it does sit rather oddly between the brief gavotte 1 and its reprise. Like Suite 2, this suite contains an Air which is actually a very animated, far from vocal, piece.
I have prefaced Suite 5 with a Chorale-Prelude originally for organ and arranged by Constant Lambert for Harriet Cohen. In truth, the “arrangement” amounts to no more than re-writing the music on two staves instead of three – the music fits well enough under the hands without further adjustment.
There are no “extra” pieces for Suites 5 and 6, which already have more movements than the other suites. An unusual piece in Suite 5 is the Loure. This is a slow gigue of French origin, beginning with an anacrusis and with a dotted rhythm in the first part of the bar. Bach respects these rhythmic conventions, though he places such emphasis on the “slow” aspect as to create a gentle slow movement rather than a dance.
I have prefaced Suite 6 with a Prelude in E, well-known as one of the “Six Short Preludes”. It is a lively two-part invention. A movement in this suite that calls for some explanation is the Polonaise. Chopin has led us to expect a piece with this title to adopt a heroic stance. In baroque times, the polonaise was basically an elegant minuet with the typical Polish rhythm dominating the first beat of each phrase.
In my early teens, I was taken to a recital in Folkestone (UK) by Moura Lympany. She began with Bach, I think the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. “Good part playing”, said my teacher. Young and opinionated as I was, I said severely that she had no business to be playing it on the piano. We argued the matter on and off for months if not years, till I was sent to study with RAM Professor Alexander Kelly. He made it clear from the start that he expected his pupils to play Bach, “because it’s so good for teaching you to listen to yourself”. Bach on the piano thereby entered my life and has never left it. I wish, now, that I had paid more generous attention to Moura Lympany, for I believe she must have been one of the last exponents of what may be called pre-Gould Bach. I retain the aural image of a gracious interflow of the contrapuntal parts and a natural, unforced – even sublime – inevitability in the way the music steadily unfolded towards its climax.
I have not sought out the Bach recordings of Lympany and her older contemporaries while preparing these performances. Imitation is no way to arrive at an interpretation of one’s own. The absorption into one’s bloodstream of remembered performances, of which the memory has very likely been adjusted to one’s own lights over the years, seems on the other hand a possible path towards a personal vision of the music. In practical terms, this means that listeners will find these performances cultivate a much more legato, cantabile approach than has been usual for many years. This is not intended as a criticism of the many excellent performances available that adopt the now-customary staccato approach and, of course, in some of the dances I find a degree of staccato necessary. But I do feel that the earlier legato performances had an ethos that was valid in its own way, and which is worth recapturing today. In one respect I probably differ from “old-school” Bach. These pianists used, I believe, a certain amount of pedal. The pedal may be a useful friend in the slower pieces, principally the sarabandes. But, however cleanly one pedals, the sonority of the piano changes, and I prefer to avoid it entirely.
CD1
01. Praeludium und Fughetta, BWV 899: Praeludium
02. Praeludium und Fughetta, BWV 899: Fughetta
03. French Suite No.1 in D Minor, BWV 812: I. Allemande
04. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: II. Courante
05. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: III. Sarabande
06. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: IV. Menuet I
07. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: V. Menuet II
08. French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812: VI. Gigue
09. Fantasie sur un Rondeau in C Minor, BWV 918
10. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: I. Allemande
11. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: II. Courante
12. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: III. Sarabande
13. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: IV. Air
14. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: V. Menuet (I)
15. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813a: VI. Menuet II
16. French Suite No.2 in C Minor, BWV 813: VII. Gigue
17. Prelude in B Minor, BWV 923
18. French Suite No.3 in B Minor, BWV 814: I. Allemande
19. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: II. Courante
20. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: III. Sarabande
21. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: IV. Anglaise
22. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: V. Menuet
23. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: VI. Trio
24. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814a: VII. Menuet II
25. French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV 814: VII. Gigue
26. Fugue in B Minor, BWV 951
CD2
01. French Suite No.4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: I. Praeludium
02. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: II. Allemande
03. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: III. Courante
04. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: IV. Sarabande
05. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: V. Gavotte I
06. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: VI. Gavotte II
07. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815: V. Menuet
08. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a: VII. Air
09. French Suite No. 4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815: VII. Gigue
10. Der Tag der ist so freudenreich in G Major, BWV 605
11. French Suite No.5 in G Major, BWV 816: I. Allemande
12. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: II. Courante
13. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: III. Sarabande
14. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: IV. Gavotte
15. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: V. Bourrée
16. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: VI. Loure
17. French Suite No. 5 in G Major, BWV 816: VII. Gigue
18. Prelude in E Major, BWV 937
19. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: I. Allemande
20. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: II. Courante
21. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: III. Sarabande
22. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: IV. Gavotte
23. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: V. Polonaise
24. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: VI. Menuet
25. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: VII. Bourrée
26. French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817: VIII. Gigue
27. Das Wohltemperierte Klavier II: Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 878: No. 1, Preludio
28. Das Wohltemperierte Klavier II: Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 878: No. 2, Fugue
Digital technology can play strange tricks. If the standard text of the French Suites, played with all repeats and at feasible tempi, had fitted comfortably on a single CD or expanded neatly to fill two, I should never have got to know some very rewarding music.
First of all, alongside the canonical movements, there are several that were discarded from the “standard” text. How this “standard” text came to be decided is not entirely clear. The Suites were written around 1722-25 for Anna Magdalena Bach. The earliest copies do not contain all the movements we know today. Numerous copies were made by Bach’s pupils, some of them adding extra movements, but Bach himself never prepared a definitive version for publication, reserving his efforts in this direction for the more elaborate Partitas. By 1802, Bach’s biographer Forkel stated that the Suites, still awaiting publication, were usually called “French”, “because they were written in the French manner”. The title has stuck, though the Suites, like all of Bach’s music, are thoroughly cosmopolitan and are no more specifically French than anything else he wrote. With all the wealth of information available about these Suites, I have not found an answer to the simple question of when they were first published and what the publication contained. The edition by Carl Czerny (c.1841) has the same movements as most modern editions, though omitting the Minuet of no. 4, which is usually accepted as “canonical”. The first Bach Gesellschaft Ausgabe (1865) had the same movements as Czerny, with a number of others relegated to an appendix.
It is these “other” movements that first aroused my curiosity. Quite a lot of pianists nowadays include at least some of these. Since this was still not enough to fill a second CD, I first considered prefacing each Suite with a Prelude and Fugue in the same key from the “48”. The E major Prelude and Fugue that concludes CD2 is a remnant of this idea. In the end I decided to seek a little further off the beaten track. Inspired by the fact that the “extra” movements include a Prelude to the Fourth Suite, I decided to look among Bach’s many single pieces for a “Prelude”, and sometimes also a Postlude, to each Suite. The idea was not to complete Bach’s work for him, but to provide six listener-friendly mini-programmes, each with a Suite as its main item.
Though the Praeludium and Fughetta that prefaces the D minor Suite has a BWV number, it is not now considered an authentic work of J.S. Bach. Those who like to keep things in the family will be pleased to know that a likely author was Bach’s son Wilhelm Friedemann. It is brief but impressive.
The Fantasie über ein Rondo, which I use to preface Suite 2, is on the other hand an extensive two-part invention. It is justly called a Rondo in the sense that the opening theme returns at strategic points, but unlike later Rondos by Mozart and other classical composers, the reprises are absorbed into the steady flow of the music.
Suite 3 is bookended here by a Prelude and Fugue in B minor which are sometimes played as a pair, though there seems no evidence this was intended. The Prelude is a very free, toccata-like piece, containing several passages where Bach simply notes chords, leaving the performer the liberty to improvise arpeggios or whatever around them. The Fugue uses a theme from Albinoni’s Trio Sonata op.1/8. This theme divides into two parts, one a striding arpeggio, the other a doleful chromatic scale. Bach develops both extensively to create one of his longest, and most powerful, single keyboard pieces.
Since the Suites are well-known, I will comment only on the extra pieces and any unusual features.
Definitely unusual is the Gigue of Suite 1, which has an angular dotted rhythm instead of the normal 6/8, making it difficult to achieve the typical spring of the Gigue. The temptation would be to smooth out the rhythm, as in Brandenburg 5, or the Courante of French Suite 4, but anyone who did this would have some hard decisions to take when the left hand starts to run in semiquavers towards the end of each part.
The “Air” of Suite 2, spelt in the English manner, is a far cry from the broad Airs of Handel, or Bach’s own in the 3rd orchestral Suite – it is a flowing dance. This Suite has an “extra” movement, a second Minuet, here played as a Trio to the first. It also has another unusual Gigue, with insistent dotted rhythms.
The Allemande of Suite 3 is a two-part invention, and perhaps the most severe movement in all the Suites. The Anglaise needs some explanation. It seems to be a Bourrée shorn of its characteristic upbeat, but why this should make it English is not clear. The second minuet here, played as a third trio, is found in the old Bach edition but I have not found it in the new one – perhaps I looked in the wrong place. It is an attractive, graceful piece, well contrasted with the other Minuets.
One of the extra movements to Suite 4, as I remarked above, is a Prelude. The general supposition is that Bach (or somebody later) discarded it because it would have been illogical to preface just one of the suites with a prelude. This piece actually contains one of the few “French” features to be found in these suites. As often with Couperin, a considerable part of it consists of arpeggiated chords, which performers are free to realize as they choose. Another extra movement is the second Gavotte. This was likely eliminated since it is considerably more developed than any of the other dance movements, and therefore disproportionate to the rest. It seems a pity to lose such a splendidly inventive piece, even if it does sit rather oddly between the brief gavotte 1 and its reprise. Like Suite 2, this suite contains an Air which is actually a very animated, far from vocal, piece.
I have prefaced Suite 5 with a Chorale-Prelude originally for organ and arranged by Constant Lambert for Harriet Cohen. In truth, the “arrangement” amounts to no more than re-writing the music on two staves instead of three – the music fits well enough under the hands without further adjustment.
There are no “extra” pieces for Suites 5 and 6, which already have more movements than the other suites. An unusual piece in Suite 5 is the Loure. This is a slow gigue of French origin, beginning with an anacrusis and with a dotted rhythm in the first part of the bar. Bach respects these rhythmic conventions, though he places such emphasis on the “slow” aspect as to create a gentle slow movement rather than a dance.
I have prefaced Suite 6 with a Prelude in E, well-known as one of the “Six Short Preludes”. It is a lively two-part invention. A movement in this suite that calls for some explanation is the Polonaise. Chopin has led us to expect a piece with this title to adopt a heroic stance. In baroque times, the polonaise was basically an elegant minuet with the typical Polish rhythm dominating the first beat of each phrase.
In my early teens, I was taken to a recital in Folkestone (UK) by Moura Lympany. She began with Bach, I think the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue. “Good part playing”, said my teacher. Young and opinionated as I was, I said severely that she had no business to be playing it on the piano. We argued the matter on and off for months if not years, till I was sent to study with RAM Professor Alexander Kelly. He made it clear from the start that he expected his pupils to play Bach, “because it’s so good for teaching you to listen to yourself”. Bach on the piano thereby entered my life and has never left it. I wish, now, that I had paid more generous attention to Moura Lympany, for I believe she must have been one of the last exponents of what may be called pre-Gould Bach. I retain the aural image of a gracious interflow of the contrapuntal parts and a natural, unforced – even sublime – inevitability in the way the music steadily unfolded towards its climax.
I have not sought out the Bach recordings of Lympany and her older contemporaries while preparing these performances. Imitation is no way to arrive at an interpretation of one’s own. The absorption into one’s bloodstream of remembered performances, of which the memory has very likely been adjusted to one’s own lights over the years, seems on the other hand a possible path towards a personal vision of the music. In practical terms, this means that listeners will find these performances cultivate a much more legato, cantabile approach than has been usual for many years. This is not intended as a criticism of the many excellent performances available that adopt the now-customary staccato approach and, of course, in some of the dances I find a degree of staccato necessary. But I do feel that the earlier legato performances had an ethos that was valid in its own way, and which is worth recapturing today. In one respect I probably differ from “old-school” Bach. These pianists used, I believe, a certain amount of pedal. The pedal may be a useful friend in the slower pieces, principally the sarabandes. But, however cleanly one pedals, the sonority of the piano changes, and I prefer to avoid it entirely.
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