Bach French Suites

[pianomaestro88]

I am looking for recordings of the suites. I have the Gould Recording, however sometimes he is unreliable because of the avant-garde nature of his interpretations. If anyone has a suggestion (preferably with as much description as possible) it would be enormously appreciated.

[dinosaurtales]

Angela Hewitt

[bernhard]

I will second Angela Hewitt and would add Andras Schiff, and Murray Perahia.

Also, have a look here:

https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NonVocal/Klavier-French-Part1.htm#Rec

for a thorough comparison of the following recordings (and lots more):

Edward Aldwell (piano)
Angela Hewitt (piano)
Andrei Gavrilov (piano)
Chrostopher Hogwood (harpsichord)
Keith Jarret (harpsichord)
Andras Schiff (piano)
Davitt Moroney (harpsichord)

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[kissinfan]

This suites that we know under the apocryphal title French suites and the English suites, Bach called them simply Suites pour le clavecion and suites avec prelude, well known the structure and background of it, although Bachs forms strike us by their freshness and imagination, latter by complexity, strenght of their writting all mixed with the geniousness of their conception and scale of every "dance".
the title given them by Bach doesn´t completely express the great formal unity of each french suite, anymore than it suggests the expressive character of the whole set, Bach "excercices" are of spiritual kind, involve a higher dimension for the mind, in contrast to any schorlarly notion of apprenticeship or practice such as appeared in many studies books, this cycle ocuppies a place similar to that of the lessons of the english virginalists and harpsichord players of the 16th adn 17th centuries, to the Scarlatti´s essercizi, or the Chopin and Debussy´s studies, they were pure creative acts, without any didactic intention...
what i see here is a kind a duodecimal system, a fascination for the composers at that time and reached its apotheosis in the 18th century, but survived until this time.
personally for me, from a perspective of 2 and a half centuries, it seems that Bach attained in these french suites the highest and deepest sensitive level in treatment  of dances, these 6 works were the most genial that the form had ever engered, after them the suite for keyboard became obsolete...