JS Bach's English Suites in Building a Library with Lucy Parham & Andrew McGregor
Lucy Parham selects her favourite piano version of JS Bach's Six English Suites (BWV 806-811) and Emily MacGregor shares her choice of the latest classical releases.
Andrew McGregor with the best new recordings of classical music.
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Emily MacGregor shares her choice of the latest classical releases.
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Building a Library
Lucy Parham selects her favourite piano version of JS Bach's Six English Suites (BWV 806-811).
Confusingly, Bach's English Suites are collections of dances in the fashionable French style of the early 18th century, each prefaced by a Prelude. On one level, the Suites are a didactic compendium of keyboard style and technique, including written-out examples (in the Second and Third Suites) of the kind of ornamentation Bach would have expected from players, his students and his own children. But these highly stylized and sophisticated dances are also full of typically Bachian small- and large-scale patterning and meaning, from the musical cypher on Bach's name, to the overarching descending organisation of keys of each successive Suite.
Lucy's choice:
András Schiff (piano)
Decca 4216402
1545
Record of the Week: Andrew’s top pick.
Last on
Music Played
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Johannes Brahms
Hungarian Dance no.6 in D flat major
Music Arranger: Georges Cziffra. Performer: Alessio Bax.- Signum Classics.
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Symphony no.29 in A major K.20 (4th mvt)
Orchestra: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin. Conductor: Bernhard Forck.- Pentatone.
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Cláudio Santoro
Symphony No. 4 "Sinfonia da Paz": II. Lento
Orchestra: Orquestra Filarmônica de Goiás. Conductor: Neil Thomson.- Santoro: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6 & Other Orchestral Works.
- Naxos.
- 103.
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Frédéric Chopin
Piano Sonata no.3 in B minor Op.58 (3rd mvt)
Performer: Alice Sara Ott.- Mecury.
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Frédéric Chopin
Piano Sonata no.3 in B minor Op.58 (4th mvt)
Performer: Yulianna Avdeeva.- Pentatone.
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Anne Bocquet
Prelude in D major
Performer: Sophie de Bardonnèche.- Alpha.
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Mlle Duval
Les Génies ou les Caractères de l'Amour (Rondeau)
Performer: Sophie de Bardonnèche. Performer: Lucile Boulanger. Performer: Justin Taylor.- Alpha.
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Mlle Duval
Les Génies ou les Caractères de l'Amour (Passacaille)
Performer: Sophie de Bardonnèche. Performer: Lucile Boulanger. Performer: Justin Taylor.- Alpha.
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Claude Debussy
Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum (Children's Corner)
Performer: Richard Galliano. Music Arranger: Richard Galliano.- Pentatone.
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George Gershwin
But Not For Me (Girl Crazy)
Music Arranger: Richard Galliano. Performer: Richard Galliano.- Pentatone.
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Francesca Caccini
Amarilli mia bella ornamented by Johann Nauwach
Singer: Wei-Lian Huang. Ensemble: Scherzi Musicali. Director: Nicolas Achten.- Ricercar.
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Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen (Die tote Stadt Op.12)
Singer: Huw Montague Rendall. Orchestra: Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Normandie. Conductor: Ben Glassberg.- Erato.
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Juan Formell
Sandunguera
Composer: Los Van Van. Performer: Sarah Willis. Ensemble: The Sarahbanda. Music Arranger: Edgar Olivero.- Alpha.
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Edward Elgar
Violin Concerto in B Minor Op.61 (3rd mvt)
Performer: Vilde Frang. Orchestra: German Symphony Orchestra Berlin. Conductor: Robin Ticciati.- Elgar: Violin Concerto, Op. 61.
- Warner Classics.
- 3.
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