Orchestral Suite No. 1
Orchestral Suite No. 2
Orchestral Suite No. 3
Orchestral Suite No. 4

Johann Bernhard Bach’s four Orchestral Suites, composed for the court orchestra of the cultured duke of Saxony-Eisenach, are amongst the most varied and sophisticated musical works of the high baroque period in Middle Germany. It was not by chance that Georg Philipp Telemann, a one-time Kapellmeister at Eisenach, commented retrospectively: “I have to praise this orchestra, arranged for the most part according to the French style, for it surpassed the very famous Parisian opera orchestra.” From 1703, Johann Bernard Bach was engaged as harpsichordist in this noble orchestra. His Orchestral Suites provide the only surviving “soundtrack” of the illustrious musical life at the Eisenach court during the 1710s and 20s. And what a soundtrack: cosmopolitan, and truly European, with sparkling virtuosic brilliance, as if written by a fiery Italian, whilst displaying the elegant taste of a noble Frenchman. In other words, the “mixed taste”, for which the best German composers of the late baroque period were famous, in its finest form. Little wonder then that Johann Bernhard Bach’s suites became core repertoire for Johann Sebastian Bach’s Leipzig Collegium Musicum, also influencing his compositions.

All this provides sufficient motivation for the Thuringian Bach Collegium to continue their exploration through the Middle German courts for their second CD recording and, with unbridled enthusiasm in their musicmaking, to bring these jewels of the early Thuringian orchestral music back to life. Bon Appétit!

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Recording: January 28 - February 1, 2019, Georgenkirche, Eisenach.