Product Description
Bach wrote 4 suites between the years 17241731. #2 is scored for flute, 2 violins, viola and basso continuo. This arrangement spreads out the solo flute elements among the parts as well as preserving the linear lines and harmonic structure.
The Suite in B minor opens with an Ouverture, a French label that indicates the movement's underlying inspiration. The combination of a slower, gravé opening and the ensuing fugal allegro ultimately originated in the French overtures of Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-87), who used them to preface his operas and ballets. Including a flute in the instrumentation allowed Bach to fold elements of concerto form into the fugal section of the overture, with the strings doing the contrapuntal heavy lifting and the flute-led concertante passages charting the movement's harmonic course. In this arrangement all four recorder parts contribute to both the fugue elements and harmonic structure.
Six shorter movements, most of them dances, each of them characterful, follow. Like the Ouverture, several of them have French origins, such as the Rondeau, or the Bourée and the Menuet, both of which were fashionable dances at the court of Louis XIV. Even the Sarabande, ostensibly a fast dance with Spanish or New World origins, appears in its slower, French guise. The Polonaise, derived from a Polish folk dance, was the reserve of German composers - it was also a favorite of Telemann in his orchestral suites. The suite closes with the Badinerie - along with the Air from his Suite No. 3, one of Bach's greatest orchestral hits - a brief, high-spirited movement in the original highlighting the solo flute, in this arrangement shared by the 2 alto recorders.
~taken from program notes by John Mangum, Los Angeles Philharmonic Annotator, LA Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director and Steven Light, arranger.
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