Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 1, BWV 1066; Orchestral Suite No. 2, BWV 1067; Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068; Orchestral Suite No. 4, BWV 1069

COMPOSERS: Bach
LABELS: Telarc
WORKS: Orchestral Suite No. 1, BWV 1066; Orchestral Suite No. 2, BWV 1067; Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068; Orchestral Suite No. 4, BWV 1069
PERFORMER: Boston Baroque/Martin Pearlman
CATALOGUE NO: CD-60619

Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque follow up their largely enjoyable recordings of Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos with his four orchestral suites. Up-to-date scholarship favours Suite No. 4 as being the earliest of them, followed by Nos 1, 3 and 2. In other words the accepted numbering system could hardly be more misleading. While Pearlman offers the Suites in their currently accepted order of composition – most rival versions that I can think of do not – that is hardly sufficient reason to rush out and buy the set. The performances are stylish, light of tread and elegant, but details in the playing, alas, do not always measure up to the strongest period-instrument competitors in the field. There are rough moments in the brass playing of the Third and Fourth Suites and the oboes are too often insecure and out of tune; evidence of these weaknesses can be quickly felt in the first Menuet of No. 4 and more frequently in the movements of No. 1, a veritable oboenfest. A pity, since, as I have implied, Pearlman and his string ensemble bring much charm and refinement to the music, with well-judged tempi and crisply articulated phrasing. But these virtues, together with more polished brass and reed playing, can also be found in Ton Koopman’s two recordings of the suites (DHM and Erato), and in that by the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Harmonia Mundi). Comfortably on a par with these, however, is Pearlman’s B minor Suite for flute and strings, where soloist Christopher Krueger’s warm-toned, fluent and gently inflected performance has considerable appeal. Nicholas Anderson