Utwory na płycie:

• Gigue from Suite No. 2 in A minor (beginning)
• Courante from Suite No. 5 in E minor (beginning)
• Prélude from Suite No. 6 in D minor (beginning)

CD 1:
Suite No.1 in A major, BWV 806
Suite No. 2 in A minor, BWV 807;Suite No. 3 in G minor, BWV 808

CD 2:
Suite No.4 in F major, BWV 809
Suite No. 5 in E minor, BWV 810
Suite No. 6 in D minor, BWV 811

A busy schedule as music director of the Bach Collegium Japan and sought-after guest conductor doesn’t stop Masaaki Suzukifrom returning to his first loves, the organ and the harpsichord. With the present release he adds yet another chapter to his series of Bach’s works for solo harpsichord. After acclaimed recordings of the Well-tempered Clavier, the Goldberg variations, the French Suites and other works the turn has come to the English Suites. Composed while Bach were in his thirties the set precedes others such as the French Suites and the Toccatas, and in his liner notes, Bach scholar YoTomita draws attention to 'the stylistic traits of a youthful and ambitious composer wanting to make his mark through the use of counterpoint and virtuosity'. Despite its title, the collection has very little to do with England, at least musically: the six suites are instead rooted in the French tradition, and show certain striking similarities to the composer Charles Dieupart’sSix Suittespour le Clavessinfrom 1701. (Bach made a copy of Dieupart'sset sometime between 1709 and 1716.) It was only in the 19thcentury that the suites became known as the 'English', based on a never substantiated claim that the set was commissioned by an English nobleman.

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Recording: July/August 2016 at Kobe Shoin Women’s University Chapel, Japan. Instrumentarium: Harpsichord by Willem Kroesbergen, Utrecht 1982, after enlarged Ruckers. 2 manuals, 2x8, 1x4, FF – f ''.