Bach: English Suites / Gustav Leonhardt and others

If you connect the tonic notes of the six pieces in the suite, you get the theme of the chorale, “Jesu, meine Freude (Jesus is my joy)”. This is certainly true, but was that what Bach intended? Or was it just a coincidence? Either way, I would like to compare some of these pieces, which is one of the most popular in Bach’s clavier works.

① Gustav Leonhardt　1984
② Edith Picht-Axenfeld　1979
③ Masaaki Suzuki　2019
④ Blandine Rannou　2002
⑤ Pieter-Jan Belder　2021
⑥ Genzo Takehisa　2022
⑦ Zuzana Růžičková
⑧ Helmut Walcha
⑨ Glenn Gould

① is Leonhardt’s second recording during his mature period. It is undoubtedly the best performance of these suites collections. All harpsichordists must have been influenced by him directly or indirectly. It is truly a model for Bach performance. ② is a digitally remastered version of a performance recorded by Picht-Axenfeld in Osaka in 1979. She is a performer who plays with a very neat performance, and this is also one of my favorites. ③ was recorded by Suzuki in 2019, and is a harpsichord piece that he recorded for the first time in a long time after finishing recording the complete cantatas along with the second volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Here you can hear the orthodox performance of a man who knows Bach inside and out. ④ Rannou’s performance, in a word, is full of esprit. The inégal technique and ornamentation are very pleasant to the ear. ⑤ Belder is also one of my favorite performers. It is a crisp performance, and all the preludes are played at a relatively fast tempo. ⑥ Takehisa plays the first three pieces on harpsichord and the second half on Silbermann fortepiano. He also adds his own improvisations as introductions to four of the preludes, making this a very enjoyable recording. ⑦, ⑧, and ⑨ are performed on modern harpsichord and piano. I have listened to the Walcha’s disk so many times that the record is worn out. #baroque #bach #englishsuites #片山俊幸
https://excelkobo.net/bachwerke/archive/BWV0806-0811.pdf