J.S. Bach - Overture in the French Style, BWV 831 (1733)

Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations as well as for vocal music such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival he has been generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.

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Ouvertüre nach französischer Art, BWV 831 (1733, rev. 1735)

1. Ouverture (0:00)
2. Courante (13:56)
3. Gavotte I – Gavotte II – Gavotte I (da capo) (16:35)
4. Passepied I – Passepied II – Passepied I (da capo) (20:47)
5. Sarabande (24:25)
6. Bourrée I – Bourrée II – Bourrée I (da capo) (27:21)
7. Gigue (31:08)
8. Echo (34:03)

PETER WATCHORN, harpsichord
(Hubbard & Broekman after Ruckers/Blanchet/Taskin, 1990

The French Overture, Bach’s biggest and arguably most impressive suite, a remarkably dark, even brooding piece, remains largely unknown, even to many harpsichordists, certainly in comparison to its sister-work, the ever-popular Concerto in the Italian Style, which is often played on the modern piano, transferring to that medium perhaps with more success than
much of Bach’s other keyboard music.
For the Partita-with-overture Bach re-used a composition that his wife
Anna Magdalena had copied out in about 1730 – transposing it from its original C minor down a semitone and sharpening up the dotted notation in the opening movement. The resulting tonal juxtaposition of B minor with its F major companion work, the tonalities of the two works separated by the significant interval of a tritone, was calculated to maximize the contrast between both genre and national style, though by 1735 Italian and French elements (with native German ideas – especially contrapuntal complexity – thrown in) were well and truly mixed together in countless compositions that were representative of the ideal of the “reunion of the tastes” (Les goûts réunis), espoused by, among others, François Couperin and, by the 1730s, embraced by nearly everyone.
Previously Bach had included a French Overture as the opening of the fourth Partita, but that work lacked the final return to the spirit and tempo of the opening, gravely-dotted section that typified the genre, and wore its counterpoint very lightly in the middle, fugal section, Bach introducing lighter, more “gallant”, homophonic episodes as relief from the “learned” fugal writing. In comparison, the B minor Overture is a much darker, more complex and serious piece. In BWV 831, Bach not only returns at the end to the opening material, but also specifies a repeat of both the fugal section as well as the slow ending that follows it, resulting in a massive six-part opening movement that takes around 14 minutes to perform. He also provides an extended, fully worked-out concerto fugue, which incorporates contrapuntal, solo “episodes”, clearly derived, along with the work’s overall bravura, from the Italian concerto concept, similar to the preludes from some of the English Suites. Following this magnificent
piece, Bach, perhaps recognizing the opening movement’s function as an entrée to the suite proper, dispenses with the customary allemande (as do the four Overtures for orchestra, BWV 1066 – 1069). The dances are of the French persuasion: courante – gavotte – passepied – bourrée – gigue. These are paired in the case of three of them, the first of each pair repeated after the second (in this performance with all internal binary repeats provided along with appropriate ornamentation). After the French-style gigue (in compound time, like the Italian form of the dance, but non-imitative in character, and in simple two-part texture) the suite concludes with an Echo movement, with forte and piano dynamics specified (the upper manual, which controls only one set of strings is the “soft” manual, whilst the lower manual with the coupler provides the plein-jeu – full harpsichord for contrast).