Max Derrickson

Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C major,  BMV 1066
I Overture
II Courante
III Gavotte I alternativement – Gavotte II
IV Fourlane
V Menuet I alternativement – Menuet II
VI Bourée I alternativement I – Bourée II
VII Passepied I alternativement – Passepied II

Johann Sebastian Bach   (b Eisenach, 21 March 1685; d Leipzig, 28 July 1750)

It is presumed that Bach created his four orchestral suites during his days as Kapellmeister for Prince Leopold of Cöthen (1717-1723), but the only surviving copies date to 1729, when Bach assumed directorship of the Collegium musicum ofLeipzig, a weekly public concert series founded by the famously adored composer Georg Phillip Telemann in 1704.  Most likely, was it not for this wildly popular concert series, for which Bach recycled a great deal of his secular compositions, many of Bach’s great works may have slipped into the abyss.

Though Bach did not invent, per se, any new forms he certainly set new melodic and harmonic standards for existing ones [. . .]  For inventiveness, intelligence and charm, Bach’s First Orchestral Suite is one of his great masterpieces.   [. . .] France andBritain.