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  Bach: Overtures (Suites) Nos. 1-4

  Naxos · Jan 2000

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Korngold: Suite, Op. 23; Piano Quintet, Op. 15 / Spectrum Concerts Berlin
Naxos
CD
$13.99 $19.99 Save 30% Nov 13, 2020
Erich Korngold was described as ‘arguably the most remarkable prodigy in history’, whose transition into artistic maturity was almost seamless. The successes of his youth continued with works such as the Piano Quintet, Op.15, in which the brilliant interplay of the instruments, songful expressiveness and dramatic power create a masterpiece of weight and sub-stance. The Suite, Op.23 is a highly virtuosic piece in which Korngold leads us on a monumental stroll through a gallery of European musical history, from Bach via Beethoven to the early 20th century. Spectrum Concerts Berlin has also recorded Korngold’s Piano Trio, Op.1 and String Sextet, Op.10 for Naxos.
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  Korngold: Suite, Op. 23; Piano Quintet, Op. 15 / Spectrum Concerts Berlin

  Naxos · Nov 2020

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  $19.99 $13.99

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Schmidt: 5 Overture Suites
CPO
CD
$18.99 Feb 07, 2025
In the long and eventful history of the Dresden court music, the figure of Kapellmeister Johann Christoph Schmidt undoubtedly marks a critical juncture. However, it seems that Augustus the Strong recognized Schmidt's talent early on, as his rise was steady and culminated in 1697 when he officially succeeded Schutz - a wise decision by the ruler, who Schmidt well served with musical creations that catered to the favored French taste. The Serene Highness likely experienced many unexpected delights: behind the facade of the conventional suite lies sophisticated rhythmic and metric artistry that enlivens the progression with displaced accents and whimsical turns, demanding an exceptional ensemble like the one Schmidt assembled in Dresden.
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  Schmidt: 5 Overture Suites

  CPO · Feb 2025

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Saint-Saens: La Princesse Jaune, Suite Algerienne / Travis
Chandos
CD
$21.99 Aug 01, 2000
Recorded in: Auditorium of Swiss Radio, Lugano, Switzerland 13 January 1996 (La Princesse jaune, live recording); 1 June 1999 (Suite algérienne) Producer(s) Gian Andrea Lodovici Carlo Piccardi Sound Engineer(s) Lucienne Rosset (La Princesse jaune) Jochen Gottschall (Suite algérienne)
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  Saint-Saens: La Princesse Jaune, Suite Algerienne / Travis

  Chandos · Aug 2000

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  $21.99

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  PEER GYNT SUITES / PIANO CONCERTO

  ALTO · Apr 2014

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  $11.01

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  CELLO SUITES 1-6

  APARTE · Jun 2011

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  $27.51

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  Reger: A Romantic Suite & Mozart Variations

  Querstand · Feb 2025

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  $25.99

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Tamberg: Joanna Tentata Suite, Symphonic Dances, Concerto Grosso / Jarvi, Hague Residentie
BIS
CD
$21.99 Jun 01, 2010

Estonian composer Eino Tamberg (b. 1930) is the real deal--a composer with a fresh take on traditional tonal music who knows how to write tunes and score them with unfailing color and point. His Concerto Grosso--for flute, trumpet, clarinet, alto saxophone, bassoon, piano, harp, strings, and percussion--is a masterpiece of 20th century neo-classicism and it deserves to be a repertory item. It dates from 1956 and at only Op. 5 it announces a major talent. The Symphonic Dances arrived a year later and fall within similar stylistic parameters, from the opening tune that has a Poulenc-like wit, to the three saxophones that give Tamberg's scoring a truly modern feel.

If you had the chance to hear Tamberg's 1976 opera Cyrano de Bergerac (and if you didn't, get it--it's on CPO), then you already know that he has a wonderful feeling for the theater, and for writing dramatic music. The ballet Joanna Tentata is based on the same source that gave us Penderecki's opera The Devils of Loudon. Now let's face it, stories about demonic possession in a convent have lots of juicy potential, as well as a long history on the stage, going back through Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel to Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. Tamberg's ballet suite instantly establishes the story's haunted setting (church bells leading to a big, dissonant instrumental pileup), but the music at the same time celebrates and positively reeks of the dance. And once again we can only applaud Tamberg's willingness (and ability) to write a good tune.

Believe it or not, some of this music has been recorded previously. The Concerto Grosso appeared on a difficult-to-source Antes CD in a very fine performance by Estonian forces. This new version is wonderful too, even more naturally recorded, and Neeme Järvi is just the conductor for this colorful, exciting, and strongly gestural music. The musicians of the Residentie Orkest also clearly relish Tamberg's ebullient musical personality and the opportunities he gives them to shine. We can only hope that BIS will delve more deeply into Tamberg's output and help to bring him some of the international attention he surely deserves.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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  Tamberg: Joanna Tentata Suite, Symphonic Dances, Concerto Grosso / Jarvi, Hague Residentie

  BIS · Jun 2010

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  CELLO SUITES 2 & 4 & 6

  SEBASTIAN · Oct 2011

  CD

  $16.49

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Bach: The French Suites / Alessandra Artifoni
Dynamic
CD
$18.99 Mar 26, 2013


BACH French Suites, BWV 812–817 • Alessandra Artifoni (hpd) • DYNAMIC 757 (2 CDs: 90:44)


It always gives me pause when I encounter an artist new to me and, upon searching the Internet for some biographical background, I find next to nothing. Alessandra Artifoni has no official website and only a number of links pop up—some in Italian only—to sources for this 2012 set of Bach’s French Suites . A one-paragraph bio-blurb in the enclosed booklet doesn’t tell us much either. She was born in Florence in 1967, so at 46 she’s not fresh out of the conservatory or just off the competition circuit. She studied organ and harpsichord in Italy, and then spent 10 years in Switzerland furthering her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. According to the note, Artifoni has made several CDs and radio recordings, but I wasn’t able to find any of them listed beyond this Dynamic release, not even on Amazon’s Italian branch. So, here we have an artist approaching 50, who, for all practical purposes, emerges from nowhere to give us a recording of Bach’s complete French Suites.


How does Artifoni fare? Quite well in fact. She makes her case for these pieces by adopting just tempos, dutifully observing repeats, making clear and precise distinctions between the various embellishment types that appear in the scores, and exhibiting no quirky mannerisms. Moreover, Artifoni’s performances are further enhanced by a richly voiced two-manual harpsichord of exceptional clarity and beauty of tone. It was built in 1997 by Tony Chinnery after a circa 1702 harpsichord by Berlin maker Michael Mietke (?1656/71–1719). Records indicate that Mietke delivered a harpsichord to the court at Köthen in 1719 on the recommendation of Bach, and that it was likely the instrument Bach played in a performance of the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto.


Chinnery lives and works in a villa just north of Florence, and this particular harpsichord from his workshop sparkles with diamond-like glints without any hint of glare or harshness across and between its two evenly matched keyboards. It’s absolutely ideal for these suites, enabling Artifoni to clearly resolve Bach’s linear writing.


Many famous players, of course, have put their individual stamps on these works, performing them on piano as well as on harpsichord. But among just harpsichord versions, the catalog beckons, in no particular order, with entries by Helmut Walcha, Huguette Dreyfus, Ton Koopman, Christophe Rousset, Kenneth Gilbert, Trevor Pinnock, Christopher Hogwood, Gustav Leonhardt, Bob van Asperen, Davitt Moroney, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, and Masaaki Suzuki. I don’t have all of them and haven’t even heard some of them, but of those I do have and/or have heard, I’m comfortable in saying that Alessandra Artifoni can stand with the best of them.


Admittedly, she is not as varied or imaginative in her approach as are some—for example, she doesn’t make much use of different stops to provide contrast in repeated sections, as does Dreyfus, or insert creative embellishments of her own making along the way, as does Rousset—but she is due credit for playing the notes as Bach wrote them, or at least how we think he wrote them, which brings me to one last, if essentially unimportant point about Artifoni’s or Dynamic’s sequencing of the suites on these two discs.


Except for a few movements of these pieces which found their way into Anna Magdalena’s Clavierbüchlein in Bach’s own hand, no autograph scores of the French Suites exist. Not even the title is Bach’s; it first appears in a 1762 treatise by German musicologist Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718–1795). Because of this, later copies and editions took it upon themselves to publish the suites in no particular agreed upon order.


As a result, many players present the suites in numerical order, one through six, which is actually an artifact of their BWV numbers. Since the BWV catalog assigned 812 to the Suite in


D Minor, it became No. 1; 813, assigned to the Suite in C Minor, became No. 2, and so on. But not all players adopt this schema, some preferring to present the suites in some alternate order that makes sense to them or to the record producer laying them out. Just for grins, here’s Artifoni’s sequence compared to Rousset’s.

	D Minor	C Minor	B Minor	E?-Major	G Major	E Major
	812	813	814	815	816	817
Artifoni (order)	5	2	4	1	3	6
Rousset (order)	5	2	6	1	4	3


Whether there’s any significance to the fact that Artifoni and Rousset both begin their sets with the E?-Major Suite (BWV 815) followed by the C-Minor Suite (BWV 813), or whether it’s purely coincidental I don’t know, but if there’s a desire to devise some plan based on keys, Bach didn’t make it easy. There’s no obvious formula I can see that would result in a complementary or symmetrical structure. Rousset begins in E?-Major and ends in E Major, two keys that may be adjacent to each other on the keyboard but are a universe apart in terms of tonal relationships. Artifoni also begins in E?-Major but ends in B Minor, a tonal relationship of an augmented fifth (or diminished sixth) that would have taken the curls right out of Bach’s wig. So, one must conclude that since no order makes sense, any order will do.


The more I listen to Aritifoni’s French Suites the more I like them. They won’t displace other favorites, chief among which are Rousset and, with apologies to any elitists who may happen upon this review—I’m sure there are none among Fanfare ’s readers—Keith Jarrett, whose ventures into Bach, I think, are generally underappreciated. Anyway, Artifoni’s new release is highly recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

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  Bach: The French Suites / Alessandra Artifoni

  Dynamic · Mar 2013

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  $18.99

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  8 Suites In French Style BWV 8

  Kontrapunkt · Feb 1992

  CD

  $41.99

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  Jolivet: Suite En Concert Pour Flute Et Percussion / Harriso

  BIS · Jan 1984

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  $21.99

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  The Billy Collins Suite (Songs Inspired by his Poetry)

  Cedille · Oct 2009

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  $19.99 $9.99

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Gaspard Le Roux: Complete Suites
Avie Records
CD
$24.99 Sep 19, 2025
For his tenth Avie release, Daniel-Ben Pienaar advocates for the little-known French composer Gaspard Le Roux, by re-imagining his exquisite "Piece de clavessin" from 1705 (his only publication) for it's first ever recording on the modern piano. By turns pleasing, witty, brilliant and affecting, the complete collection makes for a diverting and balanced recital. For his tenth Avie release, Daniel-Ben Pienaar advocates for the little-known French composer Gaspard Le Roux, by re-imagining his exquisite "Piece de clavessin" from 1705 (his only publication) for it's first ever recording on the modern piano. By turns pleasing, witty, brilliant and affecting, the complete collection makes for a diverting and balanced recital.
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  Gaspard Le Roux: Complete Suites

  Avie Records · Sep 2025

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  $24.99

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  Berg: Lulu Suite, Der Wein, Etc / Boulez, Blegen, Norman

  Sony Masterworks · Oct 1990

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  $11.98

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Rameau: Ballet Suites / Goodman, Et Al
Naxos
CD
$19.99 Sep 20, 2005

This recording highlights a selection of Rameau's well-loved ballet suites. Previously an established keyboard player and composer, 17th century composer Rameau's foray into the world of opera was well received by an adoring French public, and he became renowned for his ability to produce one brilliant melody line after another.

Plateé's Ouverture begins with a particularly sensitive touch and beautiful dynamic interpretation - the strings echo each other with a real tenderness as their imitations fade to a whisper. But Rameau's penchant for switching moods soon makes an appearance, and with a flurry of strings and harpsichord, the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) springs to life. The vivacity and humour of this comic opera are conjured up beautifully by the dynamic style of the players, and they bring a real energy to these suites.

The EUBO was formed to give young players the opportunity to fine-tune their Baroque playing style, and this youthful ensemble firmly plants its own stamp on the collection of suites. Their versatile style lends itself wonderfully to the series of short dances that feature in the Pigmalion suite, capturing the sober mood of the Gracieusement and the uplifting spirit of the Tambourin.

When Rameau originally penned Dardanus, it was described as 'a piece so laden with music that for three whole hours, the orchestral players do not even have time to sneeze'. You get this sense with the recording, but the tempo never suffers from being rushed or forced. The steady opening of the Ouverture is faithfully interpreted and during the moments when the players scurry through the Rigaudons and Tambourins, their well-phrased playing gives the dances room to breath. The EUBO are in no danger of playing catch-up with Rameau's racing melody lines - their vivid performance is an arresting tribute to Rameau's vibrant style.

Helenka Bednar, BBC Music

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  Rameau: Ballet Suites / Goodman, Et Al

  Naxos · Sep 2005

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  $19.99

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  BACH: THE CELLO SUITES

  WARNER CLASSICS · Jun 2021

  Vinyl

  $54.99

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  Enescu: Piano Sonata No. 1 - Suite No. 2

  Naxos · Oct 2010

  CD

  $19.99 $13.99

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Froberger: Suites for Harpsichord, Vol. 2 / Rowland [2 CDs]
Athene
CD
$27.99 May 14, 2021
Gilbert Rowland is one of Europe’s most senior and accomplished exponents of the harpsichord. Following his critically acclaimed 6-album series of the Harpsichord Suites of Handel for Divine Art, he moved to the Athene imprint which now specializes in baroque music and ‘period’ instruments for his well-received album of Suites by Johann Mattheson and his first volume of Froberger’s Suites. This 2-album set is the second volume in a projected complete survey of the Harpsichord Suites by Johann Jakob Froberger, whose organ and harpsichord music is individual in nature and ground breaking – he was one of the first composers to settle the ‘dance-movement’ style of Suite taken up by Couperin, Bach, and Handel among many others. There are 12 Suites in this collection. Gilbert Rowland plays a 2 manual French style harpsichord made by Andrew Wooderson after an instrument by Goemans (Paris, 1750)
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  Froberger: Suites for Harpsichord, Vol. 2 / Rowland [2 CDs]

  Athene · May 2021

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  $27.99

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  Bach: Suites Nos. 1, 4 , 5

  BIS · Aug 2010

  SACD

  $21.99

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  Fauré: Violin Sonata, Dolly Suite, Etc / Nash Ensemble

  CRD Records · Jan 2004

  CD

  $20.99

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  Ibert: Piano Music - Petite Suite, Histoires / Hae-won Chang

  Naxos · May 2000

  CD

  $19.99

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Purcell: The Complete Suites & Other Music for Keyboard
SOMM Recordings
CD
$18.99 May 16, 2025
SOMM Recordings is pleased to release the first-ever recording on piano of the eight keyboard suites by one of England's greatest creative artists, Henry Purcell (1659 -1695). Making his SOMM debut is the Romanian-British pianist Cristian Sandrin, who is building a career in the UK as a rising young artist following his debut solo recital at Wigmore Hall in 2017. Reviewers have noted "Sandrin's generous sonorities issue forth in marvellous diversity," Fanfare Magazine; and "An immaculately played recital," Music Web International. Henry Purcell was at the height of his powers at the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which saw King William III and his wife Queen Mary II crowned as joint British monarchs. Queen Mary was an avid lover of dance, which led to it being a regular and expected part of Restoration theatrical productions. Purcell's first great operatic work, Dido and Aeneas from the late 1680s, included no less than seventeen original dances. Purcell wrote in every form-ranging from theatre and church to concerts and balls-and his music dominated public demand in almost every genre. His success led to requests for music of all kinds, particularly dance movements, either singly or forming parts of suites for the keyboard. At the time, there was a growing fashion for French keyboard music, and Purcell willingly accepted the structural influences from that school. And yet, his music remained infused with the individual expression of an undoubtedly English composer. Tragically, Purcell died at the peak of his career on 21 November 1695 at his home in London. He is believed to have been 35 or 36 years old at the time. A year after his death, Purcell's widow, Frances, posthumously published A Choice Collection of Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinet. These eight suites, long overshadowed by his more celebrated theatre works, are the core of Purcell's keyboard output, shifting from major to minor keys, from humour to seriousness, to create a uniquely expressive musical world. The suites incorporate French dance forms like the Almand, Corante, and Minuet, and the Spanish Saraband, which Purcell imbued with a quintessentially British idiom. This finds particular expression in movements like a Corante that deftly incorporates tunes from Ireland and Scotland; a brilliant Jigg that seems to catch the listener unawares; and a burly Hornpipe that draws on earlier incidental music. Cristian Sandrin intersperses Purcell's posthumously published eight keyboard suites with occasional additions from other works, and his recital concludes with the beautiful Sefauchi's Farewell. Purcell was deeply impressed on hearing one of the greatest of all castrati, the Italian 'Sefauchi' (Giovanni Francesco Grossi), in London. This keyboard work is a tribute from one noble musician to another.
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  Purcell: The Complete Suites & Other Music for Keyboard

  SOMM Recordings · May 2025

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  $18.99

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BACH: COMPLETE CELLO SUITES
HARMONIA MUNDI
CD
$21.99 Apr 15, 2022
Bruno Philippe conceives Bach's Suites for solo cello as a veritable existential journey, from life to death and resurrection. Forgoing metal strings for their historical gut equivalents, the young French artist offers us an inward, deeply moving reading of this monument of instrumental music.
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  BACH: COMPLETE CELLO SUITES

  HARMONIA MUNDI · Apr 2022

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  $21.99

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Elgar: Violin Concerto; Salut d'Amour; Delius: Suite
Channel Classics
CD
$20.99 Feb 21, 2025
'If you want to know who, for me, is the greatest living composer, I'll tell you without hesitation - it's Elgar, whom I place on the same level as my idols Beethoven and Brahms!' So said the great virtuoso Kreisler.' Nicolas Dautricourt continues: 'This Concerto, with it's unbridled lyricism and unique proportions, is an Everest for any violinist.' In this, his first recording for Channel Classics, the French violinist brings together three works by two English composers. In 1888, in the same year Elgar wrote the famous Salut d'amour for his fiancee Caroline Alice Roberts, Frederick Delius composed his Suite for Violin and Orchestra, one of his very first works. The Suite, which only received it's premiere in 1984, is heard here in this insightful arrangement by Frederic Chaslin for violin, piano and string quartet.
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  Elgar: Violin Concerto; Salut d'Amour; Delius: Suite

  Channel Classics · Feb 2025

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