Customer Reviews

The French Suites

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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!

I have always been a fan of Bach, but this particular recording makes me feel as if I'm listening to an old friend with a brand new pair of ears. I bought a copy for myself, and then I went back and bought three more copies for friends. It's a great gift.

Bradley Brookshire is a rare artist -- his playing of the Bach French Suites is lyrical, sensitive and at times passionate. Beautifully played with marvelous, clear technnique. Catch him live, if you can -- it's even more visceral in person.

Although this is "familiar" music, Mr. Brookshire brings a freshness to his performance of the suites. The harpsichord is used to bring a lush yet precise tone to this cd. Each one of the suites stand out as well articulated and interpreted and I discover new sections with each listening. This is both a superbly musical and yet scholarly listening experience and the best I have heard of the suites. I hope he records all of Bach's works for the keyboard. Bravo!

The French Suites do not come easily to hand. As in the case of most works of great scope and depth, they lend themselves to a broad spectrum of interpretation and certainly have been subjected to past abuses in this respect. But happily for us, Bradley Brookshire has made these astonishing works very much his own, and in the process, has given us access to the profundity of his personal emotive responses to them and, at the same time, maintained the utmost scrupulousness in matters of a technical and historical nature. May we have more from this fine interpreter?.

I bought this cd after hearing Brookshire in concert. The concert was a wonderful musical experience, and the cd is every bit as wonderful. Brookshire has a clear passion for the instrument and the music, and that shines through in this recording. I highly recommend this cd!

Bradley Brookshire's French Suites is a stupendous accomplishment! As much as I have ever heard on a recording, Brookshire conveys the immediacy of a live concert. If you haven't been lucky enough to hear him in person, this is the next best thing. Brookshire's uncanny ability to be one with the music allows the listener to experience Bach with an intimacy that I have felt to this degree only with Nathan Milstein. Brookshire is a musician in the rarified realm of genius. Buy anything you can get your hands on recorded by Brookshire!

Where did this guy come from? He's fantastic!! I hear that he is giving a series of recitals of all of Bach's keyboard works in New York, including this cd. The technique is all there certainly but its the passion that fills each Suite that is so extraordinary.