Bach - English Suite No. 5 in E minor, BWV 810 (Robert Levin, Alan Curtis)

Want to make a video suggestion or just support the channel? https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Noctuelle

Bach’s biographer, J. N. Forkel, singled out the final two English Suites as representing pinnacles of Bach’s keyboard music. The fifth suite commences with a fugal prelude, which, like those of Suites II-IV, introduces a contrasting solo episode after the initial exposition. The allemande, with its rather angular melodic contours and right- and left-hand parts which cross each other at one point, is succeeded by a dramatic and intense courante with heavily accented downbeats. The sarabande – its galant style distinct from the classic examples of this dance found elsewhere among the English Suites – presents an introspective, seemingly private meditation. It is the sparest, simplest and yet one of the most profound movements to be found in the entire collection. As in Suite IV, no ornaments are included in the manuscript sources; the present recordings supplies embellishments of the repeats. There follows a pair of passepieds (fast dances in triple time), the second in the tonic major key. The final gigue – one of the two movements selected by Forkel for specific praise as "perfect examples of melody and harmony", introduces a theme notable for its leap from the tonic note to successive two-note figures that form an overall descending chromatic line. Normally this device suggests sighing, but it is revealing that Bach does not slur the two-note groups; indeed, the later use of pairs of chords in the same rhythm suggests that Bach has deliberately eschewed the conventional affect. The onrushing momentum of the second half, ending with an offbeat low E, provides the suite with a breathlessly wilful conclusion.

Suite No. 5 in E minor, BWV 810 (Robert Levin, piano)
1. Prélude 0:00
2. Allemande 4:37
3. Courante 7:36
4. Sarabande 9:40
5. Passepied I en Rondeau 12:23
6. Passepied II 13:45
7. Passepied I repetatur 14:35
8. Gigue 15:58

Suite No. 5 in E minor, BWV 810 (Alan Curtis, harpsichord)
1. Prélude 18:44
2. Allemande 24:16
3. Courante 28:10
4. Sarabande 30:37
5. Passepied I en Rondeau 33:28
6. Passepied II 34:51
7. Passepied I repetatur 35:47
8. Gigue 36:07

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Noctuelle