J.S. Bach: Orchestral Suites

Featuring

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Johann Sebastian Bach

Did you know?

1/7

Composer Biography

Bach's move to Leipzig in 1723 to become Cantor of St. Thomas's was driven by various factors, including concerns about his princely employer's waning interest in music in Köthen.

Historical Context

The Collegium Musicum, directed by Bach, performed weekly in public at a coffee house in Leipzig, where townsfolk and visitors enjoyed music with coffee and cakes.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Bach revitalized the traditional suite form through refined contrapuntal techniques, varied instrumentation, and a dramatically skillful organization of movements, often playing with antitheses.

Composition History

Bach took over the direction of the Collegium Musicum, an orchestra of 15-20 students, in Leipzig in 1729, which offered him artistic freedom.

Composition History

Bach often reworked earlier compositions from his time in Köthen for the Collegium Musicum, a practice noted by Nikolaus Forkel in 1802.

Composer Biography

Bach was often at odds with his superiors in Leipzig, leading him to consider leaving the city, as revealed in a letter to his friend Georg Erdmann.

Compositional Technique

Bach's Orchestral Suites represent a 'mixed taste,' combining French and Italian styles, with a tripartite overture featuring solemn French dotted rhythms and a rapid, fugal Italian middle section.