The Orchestral Suites are a veritable potpourri of Baroque dance music.
It is well known that Bach was fond of dance. It is also well known that Bach had, from a very early age, mastered every modish form – from the keyboard partitas of lower Germany, to the concerto grosso of the Italian states and the courtly dances of the Sun King’s France. It is the latter that is on full display in the Suites.
In the program notes, we are unreliably informed that Bach’s predecessor in Leipzig’s Thomaskirche was Telemann. (It was, of course, Kuhnau; Telemann was Bach’s competitor for the position.) But it was Telemann who had kept the Collegium Musicum flourishing in Leipzig, for which ensemble Bach offered this set of four (not six, strangely) suites for public consumption in the Zimmermansches Kaffeehaus.
Mercifully for the brass players, the orchestral suites were not played in order. The third was first. It features the full set – strings, oboes, percussion, horns. It is likely to have been played outdoors, in Zimmerman’s summer garden venue, like Bach’s Laßt uns sorgen, laßt uns wachen.
Thankfully, the rhythm was performed double-dotted, to give an upbeat dance effect. Brian Nixon on timpani performed the opening roll with an ever-gradual crescendo. As one would expect from the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, all this was performed at a very lively tempo. Especially was that so with the galloping B-section. It was a wonder how the strings could synchronise the meandering lines at that pace with such precision. And hiccups on the horns were unusually rare.
The Orchestra’s penchant for phrasing was showed off in the delightful Air, where Paul Dyer interposed dramatic pauses. So too in the Ouverture of the next suite – Suite No 1 in C Major – where the clarity of the overlapping voices in the B-section was admirable. The best features of Suite No 1 are the solos and trios. Sim Walter’s tortuous accompaniment on bassoon was performed faultlessly. She distinguished herself, certainly more than Geyersbach ever did – Bach’s resident “Zippelfagottist”.
Dyer performed the first iteration of the Courante senza ripieni, before it was again played tutti. This gave a delightful echo effect. The Gavotte II features a hurdy-gurdy-like drone in the bass, followed by the beckoning call of a hunter’s horn, much like the recurring bass-G in the Gavotte II of Bach’s third English keyboard suite in G minor (not to mention the closing lieder of Schubert’s Winterreise). The Menuet features a delightful trio, moderated by Dyer on continuo, between Shaun Lee-Chen and Ben Dollman on violin and Jamie Hey on cello. Dyer’s rendition of the Bouree alternates between lively and languid, to give a delicious chiaroscuro effect. Adam Masters distinguished himself on oboe in the closing Passepied.
After the interval, Mikaela Oberg joined the orchestra for Suite No 2 in B minor. In the Sarabande, the orchestra made the most of the sighing motif and made many of the rhythms dotted, with Oberg falling step-wise. The Bouree foreshadows the closing Badinerie, after which Oberg received extended applause from the audience.
Discerning listeners would recall that the Ouverture to the fourth Orchestral Suite, in D major, was appropriated by Bach for his cantata, Unser Mund sei voll Lachens (May our mouths be full of laughter). One can readily see why Bach felt the B-section of the overture to be redolent of laughter. Especially at a Dyer pace, it becomes a rollicking chorus of joy.
This reviewer had the benefit of listening along with the score in hand. Many of the light additions made by Dyer – like rhythms played inégales in the fourth suite’s Menuet I – showed a profound musicality lightened by a lively sense of humour. All this is why the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra has become a consistent favourite in Australia’s early music scene.
