Before listening to the Akademie’s version of these four Bach suites, I couldn’t resist reappraising the 1961 recordings by the late Karl Richter’s Munich Bach Orchestra (reissued recently on CD). Playing in the Akadamie’s 1996 two-disc set (reissued in 2008), the difference in approach is considerable.

In describing Richter’s set one could use a wine comparison: it’s full-bodied, while the Akadamie’s version is lighter and more delicate. Your reviewer enjoyed both approaches to these suites.

The suites, as popular as Bach’s Brandenburg concertos (if you look at the number of recordings issued for both works), take the form of an overture, followed by several dance movements: gavottes, menuets, bourrées etc. The overtures are by far the longest and more complex, and are expansively laid out with a stately solemn opening and finale, with rapid fugal and concertante middle sections in the Italian manner. The works are a mixture of French and Italian styles. The 3rd and 4th suites employ trumpets and timpani.

Bach’s career took a turn for the better when he went to Cöthen in 1717. His employer, Prince Leopold, was an educated man and a keen musician, and there wasn’t the need for sacred choral music as his previous employer had demanded, and certainly his next employment in Leipzig would demand.

This is the era of these suites. This era, but it came to an end in 1923 after the Prince had married. The new princess was not at all interested in music or the arts in general.