Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

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.

1405
Emily MacGregor shares her choice of the latest classical releases.

1500
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.

1 hour, 59 minutes

Music Played

  • Johannes Brahms

    Hungarian Dance no.6 in D flat major

    Music Arranger: Georges Cziffra. Performer: Alessio Bax.
    • Signum Classics.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Symphony no.29 in A major K.20 (4th mvt)

    Orchestra: Academy for Ancient Music Berlin. Conductor: Bernhard Forck.
    • Pentatone.
  • 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.
  • Frédéric Chopin

    Piano Sonata no.3 in B minor Op.58 (3rd mvt)

    Performer: Alice Sara Ott.
    • Mecury.
  • Frédéric Chopin

    Piano Sonata no.3 in B minor Op.58 (4th mvt)

    Performer: Yulianna Avdeeva.
    • Pentatone.
  • Anne Bocquet

    Prelude in D major

    Performer: Sophie de Bardonnèche.
    • Alpha.
  • Mlle Duval

    Les Génies ou les Caractères de l'Amour (Rondeau)

    Performer: Sophie de Bardonnèche. Performer: Lucile Boulanger. Performer: Justin Taylor.
    • Alpha.
  • Mlle Duval

    Les Génies ou les Caractères de l'Amour (Passacaille)

    Performer: Sophie de Bardonnèche. Performer: Lucile Boulanger. Performer: Justin Taylor.
    • Alpha.
  • Claude Debussy

    Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum (Children's Corner)

    Performer: Richard Galliano. Music Arranger: Richard Galliano.
    • Pentatone.
  • George Gershwin

    But Not For Me (Girl Crazy)

    Music Arranger: Richard Galliano. Performer: Richard Galliano.
    • Pentatone.
  • Francesca Caccini

    Amarilli mia bella ornamented by Johann Nauwach

    Singer: Wei-Lian Huang. Ensemble: Scherzi Musicali. Director: Nicolas Achten.
    • Ricercar.
  • 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.
  • Juan Formell

    Sandunguera

    Composer: Los Van Van. Performer: Sarah Willis. Ensemble: The Sarahbanda. Music Arranger: Edgar Olivero.
    • Alpha.
  • 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.

Broadcast

  • Sat 28 Sep 2024 14:00

Composers A to Z

Composers A to Z

Visit the extensive Radio 3 audio archive of programmes about composers and their works.

Browse previous episodes of the Record Review Podcast

Browse previous episodes of the Record Review Podcast

All episodes since 2010, listed alphabetically by composer surname.

Why the music we love as teens stays with us for life

Cognitive neuropyschology can explain why we return to old favourites again and again.