The French Suites

Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer), Bradley Brookshire (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Bradley Brookshire
• Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
• Audio CD (June 30, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Purchase Records
• ASIN: B00005OCYW
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #551,891 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Allemande

2. Courante

3. Sarabande

4. Menuets I & II

5. Gigue

6. Allemande

7. Courante

8. Sarabande

9. Air

10. Menuet

11. Gigue

12. Allemande

13. Courante

14. Sarabande

15. Anglaise

16. Menuet & Trio

17. Gigue

18. Allemande

19. Courante

20. Sarabande

See all 39 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamic!, June 13, 2003

By 

Bradley P. Lehman (Dayton, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The French Suites (Audio CD)

I've had Brookshire's recording for about a year already, and have known many other recordings of the French Suites (at least 20) for a lot longer than that. This is easily one of the most interesting, most consistently engaging performances: really special. By comparison, Brookshire makes just about everybody else (except Rubsam on piano) sound wooden and unimaginative.

How does he do it? With flexibility. There is something happening at every moment. Brookshire has probed into the meaning of each note, each phrase, not content to merely rattle them off like so many good sight-readers do. He plays with the harpsichordist's most important expressive element: timing. He has subtle rubato within phrases and between phrases, and often a wide bit of arpeggiation between the hands to bring out melodic contours and accents.

Brookshire is also a master of ornamentation. He doesn't simply add a few twiddles of graffiti on repeats. He ornaments the music differently both times through a section, to bring out the beauty he has found in it. And he uses not only the signed ornaments from French 17th-18th century tables, but also Italianate ideas that can be found in various treatises, plus some of his own, plus a few that remind me of some other current players (while still sounding fresh here). Anything is possible. The idea is not to be "correct" in following anyone else's instructions, but to play with utter conviction and to make the music as beautiful as one can play it, and that is what Brookshire does here. He plays THE MUSIC and ornaments it in ways that seem natural to the moment, utterly right, like the way Bing Crosby handled melodies.

Brookshire tries different things in each suite: the way he balances the movements against one another, the way he chooses tempos, the registrations, the timing and ornamentation, etc. Sometimes there is extreme energy and drive; at other times the music is pensive, even casual. Every suite has a different range of character. In one movement (Sarabande of #5) Brookshire reduces the dance to a harmonic outline on which he improvises his own melodic strands, and then uses Bach's elaborately written-out version as the repeat. That works well, too.

And I get the sense that Brookshire had enough ideas in his study (and probably also in his outtakes) to present five totally different but equally convincing performances of each suite; the tough thing must have been the choice of which one version of each made it onto the disc. And that's as it should be. Music is a living thing, and can be different at every performance. The music is so rich, especially with a player this bold and fluent, there is no single "correct" way to play anything. And that is a point that Brookshire makes here, by example. It's inspiring. The only really "wrong" way to play Bach is not to bring any imagination to it (or to quarrel over which manuscript version from Bach's circle one is going to play as an exact reading); unfortunately, a deadly unimaginative approach is still the status quo in many quarters.... Brookshire's delivery here is fresh air.

How can I say all that more succinctly? This is bread and butter repertoire. I'm a professional harpsichordist myself. This Brookshire disc is one that I keep listening to, no matter how well I already know the music, and no matter how many other ways I like it to go, as further possibilities. Brookshire's performances make me notice things about the music I hadn't noticed before, and show what an unfailingly creative composer Bach was. Bravo!

I've heard that Brookshire is working on a recording of the Art of Fugue. If this disc of the French Suites is any indication, that one should pretty much sweep the field as well. I can hardly wait to hear it!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cutting-Edge Recording with a Cult Following, June 9, 2003

By 

J. Smith (Teaneck, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The French Suites (Audio CD)

One malcontent below has taken Brookshire to task for features of his French
Suites recording that I find actually recommend it. For example, the
vivacious tempi (some of his tempi, it should be noted, are actually even a
little slower than your conventional, cookie-cutter harpsichord
performance), which enliven the Correntes and Gigues. If you need more
justification than your ears provide for his tempi, just check out some
18th-century tempo charts!

Similarly, the "missing" repeats in some of the Allemandes allow us to have
the recording more affordably. I'll be damned if I would like to pay $$ more
just for a couple of repeats that only the most pedantic listener would
demand. Brookshire does virtually all the repeats, and those that are
omitted are only in those movements that do not call for varied reprises.

And, on the subject of varied reprises, Brookshire stands alone among
harpsichordists today who dare to follow Baroque convention regarding the
repeats of cantabile dances. I have wondered when somebody was going to
offer Sarabandes in which the (oft-mentioned, never-practiced) convention of
supplying a "new" version of the surface ornamentation on reprise was
actually put into practice. Brookshire is on the cutting edge of Baroque
performance practice on this one.

Similarly, Brookshire is on the cutting edge with respect to tempo rubato.
There are far too many sources that support tempo rubato in Baroque music to
list here: there are *none* that instruct performers to play with an
inflexible beat. Brookshire's use of a flexible tactus allows him to bring
the tones of a given melody closer together, creating a greater sense of
legato on the harpsichord, an instrument whose quick decay mitigates against
cantabile playing unless rubato is employed. Again, Brookshire is right out
there in front of virtually all the other harpsichordists I have heard,
including Hill, Hantai, Rousset, Staier, et al.

That Brookshire's recording is preferable to the outdated style of stolid,
inflexible, Germanic harpsichord performances should be evident. This is a
recording that already has quite a cult following; it is truly one to
cherish, however challenging it is on first hearing.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like the New York Times, I loved this recording!, June 17, 2003

By 

Anthony Smith (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The French Suites (Audio CD)

Brookshire's French Suites has emerged as perhaps the most
thought-provoking harpsichord recording of recent years. You might disagree with Brookshire's view of Bach (although, personally, I find it invigorating and refreshing to
hear Bach played with this kind of gutsy approach!). But nobody can deny that Brookshire's French Suites recording was made with a strong artistic intent, a committment to realizing the most challenging aspects of Baroque performance (it's great to hear a harsichordist who doesn't sound like an IBM Selectric; and the ornamentation he supplies in the Sarabande of the G-major suite is mind-blowing!) and a superb technique.

But don't take my word for it: this recording was Number Three in the New York Times roundup of the ten best classical recordings of 2001! Stereo Review had a number of glowing things to say about it, too, calling attention to, among other things, its superior audiophile qualities.

You won't be bored by this recording!