 Suites ou Ouvertures ? Lars Ulrik Mortensen, claveciniste avant tout, rappelle que comme pour bien des œuvres pour clavier, Bach écrivit les quatre opus dans le gout français, omniprésent également dans la musique pour ensemble instrumental. Il décide de leur ôter timbales et trompettes pour les conformer à l’esprit de la Suite de ballets, restant fidèle à la version originale où elles ne paraissent pas. Son geste allège les textures, les rythmes de danses s’imposent jusque dans les pièces de caractère, le visage des quatre Suites, sans vraiment changer, se modifie par quantités de détails dans les accents, les attaques, les couleurs sont d’aquarelle et non d’huile au point que parfois tout cela semble manquer de profondeur, comme à revers des lectures si sonores de Goebel et de ses amis de Cologne. Pour la Deuxième Suite le pari est gagné d’autant que Katy Bircher est magnifique, mais ce sera la Troisième qui profitera de cette lecture assez « consort », on l’entend différemment, comme emplie de souvenirs lullystes, emportée par les cordes vives. Passionnant sinon absolument convaincant. (Discophilia - Artalinna.com) (Jean-Charles Hoffelé) Concerto Copenhagen, the Danish National Baroque Orchestra, has developed into one of Scandinavia’s leading Baroque orchestras and has earned its place in the front ranks of the world’s most fascinating and innovative orchestras of this kind. The orchestra now turns to Johann Sebastian Bach’s famous Orchestral Suites. Although extensive research has been conducted for many years, it is not known when the suites were composed. Today everything indicates that the suites were written much earlier than is assumed and then merely had to be adapted to Bach’s new Leipzig circumstances. It is therefore not unusual for them to be performed – as on this recording – without timpani and trumpets. Although the especially popular third suite is a ceremonious, sumptuous work, the material contributed by the wind instruments is hardly of considerable significance. The suite enjoys a top ranking on the charts of Bach’s most attractive and best-loved works. Some of his most popular melodies can be found in their movements. Suite No. 2 in B minor ends with the immensely famous flute solo of the Badinerie (a "joke" comparable to the Italian "scherzo") frequently employed on television as a signature tune. Here the Johann Sebastian Bach we encounter is not the one who quests for deep spiritual knowledge or probes hidden aspects of the human soul. On the other hand, he rarely wrote mellower, more uplifting melodies or simpler, more elegantly designed dance rhythms than in these twenty-four movements brimming with magical variations, atmosphere, and rich color.
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