Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
French Suites 1-6, BWV 812-817
Various smaller works of Bach listed after review
Christopher Howell (piano)
rec. 2019-2021, Studio Griffa e Figli, Milan, Italy
Da Vinci Classics C01032 [2 CDs: 138]
Bach’s gorgeous French Suites sit chronologically between the English Suites and the six keyboard Partitas. They were written in the early 1720s for his very musical family home in Köthen. They are on a more intimate and smaller, less showy scale than the English suites and are slightly less technically demanding. I find them full of grace, lyricism, delicacy and feeling and have always been drawn to them. There is nothing really “French” about them; they are dance suites really. All are formed in the pattern of the four main dance forms of allemande, courante, sarabande and final gigue. Minuets are inserted in between the sarabande and gigue and are almost always played. Many of the suites have additional movements too which appear in different editions of the suites. These range from airs and gavottes to bourrées, a loure and even a polonaise. Any performer needs to make the decision of what to include and what to leave out in a recording of these works.
Pianist Christopher Howell studied his art with the great teacher Alexander Kelly. I have never heard him on record before but note that he has a very interesting discography which includes discs devoted to Parry, Stanford and Mackenzie. After experiencing his Bach I am keen to try and hear him in these British masters. Howell has devised a very intelligent program for this disc, interspersing the French Suites with other works by Bach which serve as preludes and sometimes postludes to the six works. He plays each suite in a full edition complete with repeats and all available optional movements; he includes the praeludium to the fourth suite for instance. The movements of the dance episodes are almost always in binary form: there are two sections, and each is repeated. There are always issues of how much ornamentation to give to the da capo repeats. Howell plays them straight and extra articulations and figurations are minimal.
Those who know these pieces well, will be aware that the first three suites, all written in minor keys (with every movement therein adhering to that same key signature) exhibit a darker, more sombre, deeper tone than the final three works, which are in contrast bathed in sunlight and positivity. Having listened to Howell’s Bach, I think he is better in the major key works on CD2. Having said that, his account of the third suite is an extremely fine reading to my ears. Christopher Howell himself has written the very enlightening notes to the set where he sets out the reasons for his textural decisions and brings a performers insight to the music. Interestingly for me is his recollection of seeing Moura Lympany play Bach. I too saw her play in her latter years but never in Bach. There is precious little of her in Bach on record either. Howell believes his approach to be more in tune with hers and her ilk though than some more, shall we say, objective interpreters. I wonder if he would respond as I do to Ingrid Haebler’s translucent version. This great artist made her French Suites for Philips at the Concertgebouw in 1979, and they were released on LP but then mostly forgotten. I think the “Great pianists of the 20th century” series resurrected the sunny sixth for her volume and readers with bigger pockets than mine would probably find them on the complete “Philips Edition” that came out on Decca a few years ago.
In terms of the French Suites on record you cannot do much better than Murray Perahia’s version of the works for Deutsche Grammophon (review). Perahia’s Bach was always one of his strengths, but this late flower is a near perfect blooming. The new version from Howell cannot compete with it in terms of a top recommendation but he still offers a much-valued contribution to these pieces. The extras he inserts add up to more than you might think too, thanks to their clever programming. There is one other version of the French Suites that I cannot live without too. I will mention it at the end.
Taking the minor key works, we begin with the classical First and those broken chords of the opening allemande. Howell is steadfast and faster than both Haebler and Perahia. The courante moves along well similarly. The sarabande of this first suite might be the gravest of them all. It is a classic Saxon chorale, and you can hear all four parts SATB articulated clearly if perhaps a little too drudging. The lilt in the gigue is achieved by an abundance in the score of dotted notes. Howell’s finale is again faster than both Perahia, Haebler and even Alexandra Papastefanu in her interesting account on FHR (review). As with all his phrasing, Christopher Howell lets his fingers do the talking. His use of the sustaining pedal is practically nil. He tells us as much in the liner notes. It takes a fine artist to achieve the legato and line he sings with fingers alone. It is highly commendable. I do miss the magical twinkle of Perahia’s fioritura though.
The Second in C minor is framed with the Fantasie über ein Rondo, very effectively. I enjoyed his running skipping 2-part textured courante and the lovely flow of his Air. Again, the gigue here is interesting; accented with strong upbeats, dotted notes all over the place. Perahia’s flickering bird-like ornamentations in the repeat demand to be heard. Howell does not play so, but some may prefer a more straight-up reading.
CD1 ends from track 17 with the Third Suite in B minor bookended with the Prelude and Fugue BWV 923/951. From the magnificent toccata opening this is a wonderful performance. Bach was always at his most melancholic in B minor (think of the great Mass in that key). Howell is so sensitive in the grace of the duetting allemande. It is a heartfelt account of the whole piece I think, the sarabande is most moving. The final fugue must be one of Bach’s most extended keyboard pieces, nearly eight minutes in duration here. Incidentally Christopher Howell chooses to place the anglaise (a gavotte like dance) before the minuet sequence. I have heard some do it the other way. The way Howell works the interplay of the counterpoint is very special in this B minor suite. The sound is generous and sympathetic too. I would urge all Bach lovers to try and hear it.
Howell’s final three suites in the major keys are elegant, clean and crisply fingered. There are so many ways to approach this music and so long as the artist plays with honesty and does not seek to accentuate things for show he or she will succeed; such is the generous, forgiving writing for keyboard that Bach penned just over 300 years ago. Ashkenazy for Decca in 2019 (review) was brisk and lively, Peter Hill for Delphian a few years earlier (review), intimate and deeply poetic. Favourites of mine when I started collecting over thirty years ago were the two recordings by Andrei Gavrilov. He made them for EMI in 1984 and then a decade later for DG. They have a vital drive and life that I still find winning. His use of pedal is the antithesis of Howell though. It takes all sorts to make a world!
The arpeggios in the Fourth’s opening praeludium complement well the rising semiquavers we hear in the right hand in the ensuing allemande. The contrapuntal development of this wave of sound underpinned by the bass left hand is divine. Howell’s dances are all delivered with true cantabile. It is a very nice version. To introduce the Fifth Suite Howell chooses a transcribed chorale prelude made by Lambert for Harriet Cohen. Many find this suite the most tuneful and friendly of the set. I would say that honour goes to the last suite but there is no denying from here on, there are few clouds, and all is well. The sarabande in G is beautifully phrased with a sincere nobility and reflection. Howell’s rubato is finely judged in this extended movement of three-voice polyphony. He lingers longer in it than Perahia and Haebler dared. There are a couple of unusual forms in these last two suites, one of which the Loure, I believe Bach only used in one other work (the violin Partita 3). After that serene sarabande, the fleeting nimble dances leading to Bach’s most extended and life-affirming gigue are refreshingly delivered.
Howell’s sprightly Sixth Suite displays all the attributes I have outlined already above. He signs off with a performance of the Prelude and Fugue in E from the second Well-Tempered Clavier collection, written in Leipzig a full twenty years after these earlier suites. In the final reckoning, perhaps Ingrid Haebler’s crystal clear touch and bel canto manner is not matched, and no-one brings the sheer sparkle that Perahia can to these works on record. I have enjoyed living with these versions the last couple of days, nonetheless. The sound of Howell’s Steinway is well captured by the Da Vinci recording engineers quite closely. There are one or two moments you might wish they had placed their mics just a fraction further back but the sonics will please most pianophiles I am sure. My library choice for these works (and several others by Bach actually) by the way, is Evgeni Koroliov. His French Suites were released by Tacet in 2007. I find his recordings of the master to be sublime. I believe only one of his Bach recordings (the 1999 Goldberg Variations) has ever been reviewed by MWI. Maybe one day I will try and put that right.
Philip Harrison
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Contents
Bach, J S: Praeludium und Fughetta, BWV 899
Bach, J S: French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV812
I. Allemande
II. Courante
III. Sarabande
IV. Menuet I
V. Menuet II
VI. Gigue
Bach, J S: Fantasie sur un Rondeau in C Minor, BWV 918
Bach, J S: French Suite No. 2 in C minor, BWV813
I. Allemande
II. Courante
III. Sarabande
IV. Air
V. Menuet (I)
VI. Menuet II
VII. Gigue
Bach, J S: Prelude in B Minor BWV923
Bach, J S: French Suite No. 3 in B Minor, BWV814
I. Allemande
II. Courante
III. Sarabande
IV. Anglaise
V. Menuet
VI. Menuet II
VII. Gigue
Bach, J S: Fugue in B Minor, BWV 951
Bach, J S: French Suite No.4 in E-Flat Major, BWV 815a
I. Praeludium
II. Allemande
III. Courante
IV. Sarabande
V. Gavotte I
VI. Gavotte II
VII. Menuet
VIII. Air
IX. Gigue
Bach, J S: Der Tag der ist so freudenreich in G Major, BWV 605
Bach, J S: French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV816
I. Allemande
II. Courante
III. Sarabande
IV. Gavotte
V. Bourrée
VI. Loure
VII. Gigue
Bach, J S: Prelude in E major, BWV937
Bach, J S: French Suite No. 6 in E major, BWV817
I. Allemande
II. Courante
III. Sarabande
IV. Gavotte
V. Polonaise
VI. Menuet
VII. Bourrée
VIII. Gigue
Bach, J S: Das Wohltemperierte Klavier II
Prelude and Fugue in E Major, BWV 878
