Bach English Suite No. 5

[fignewton]

I recently recorded this suite after practicing it on and off during the pandemic. All of the English Suites are among my favorite Bach works. If you have suggestions, please let me know as it's a constant work in progress for me.

[stringoverstrung]

Hello,

I am by no means an expert just a music lover. Since you asked for it I give you my impressions.

First of all: congratulations for a really impressive performance in terms of concentration and in terms of bringing the music of Bach to the listener.

Some suggestions that might help - but again it is not a criticism just some remarks from a random music lover:

Prelude:

- at 1:25 chord: the left hand is not completely in sync with the right hand? You might try to improve the clarity and reduce movement of the left hand. ( Smaller movement to the chord)
- From 1:30 I have the feeling a more Jubilate character is warranted -> go for a bit more pronounced melody especially the corner notes.
- 1:52 notes with thumb might come out more as inner melody line ( is a choice to make)
- great "approach" towards 2:42 but then evenness , exactitude of figure in right hand (Rhythm)
- 2:57 to 3:06: this is very well played imho; That's the kind of "Archictectural sound construct" that you should look for in the whole piece. This is  a quality of this music that was inherited from the renaissance and middle age music: this sense of space and timelessness that you achieve here.
-around 3:50: watch out to maintain supple play in right hand.

Allemande:

great tempo.
5:45 - 5:52 : with recurring patterns you should watch out not to fall into "Czerny like" repetition. With this i mean still make sure different things happen in the different rhythmic repeats to not make it sound study like (of course it does not sound like a study it's way better but still need to pay attention to this in several places).
6:05:  great resolution to B Major.
7:25 -7:50: great coloring of registers. beautifully played.

Courante:
In general not as clear as the prelude. Maybe some work on the stability of the arch of the hand? You might want to experiment with lifting your hands to different heights above the keyboard (of course with level wrist) to improve freedom of the thumb?

Sarabande:

Here i find the left hand much better than before especially in the beginning. you could strife for a little more dance like character.
13:44 cheerfullness required for Passepied II in major key now. You should hear the difference from e minor. Same change of character when reverting to e minor.

Gigue:

The dissonant character can be brought out more. Maybe a bit more finger articulation + bring out the the syncopated held over notes. Thisnis a particular piece where the Architectural construct  ( See Supra) of time and space can be achieved with great effect.
Last e : lay it down in line with previous notes so that it sounds less like: "I made it to the end"...

Which of course you did! Marvelous and thank you for sharing. So once again very very well done. Do not take it as critique I thoroughly enjoyed your performance and I wish I could play this like you!

Keep up the good work!

Regards,
Gert






In general I think more expression can be reached by praciticing the left hand separately while paying attention to the musical content (Slow).

[fignewton]

Hi Gert, Thank you very much for your kind words and for taking the time to write your detailed comments about my playing! I'm really happy to hear you liked my performance, and your comments are really helpful. I'll definitely keep those in mind as I practice this piece and the 4th suite which I'm currently working on. I know what you mean about the structure in the prelude and how I sometimes lose it. And yeah, those sequences such as the ones in the Allemande do tend to sound a bit mechanical and formulaic. The Courante was surprisingly very tricky for me to record. I started to feel nervous by the repeated A section since I didn't want to mess up, and that kind of hindered my articulation, same in the Gigue a bit. And I'll definitely give more thought to those syncopated held notes in the Gigue. Anyway, thank you again!

[stringoverstrung]

Hello,

Indeed. Any way you know what you are doing. Playing for the camera will probably also help to reduce nervousness for a real audience. Whatever extroverted personality part you have in you, let it come out with measure at the right time and it will sound even better!

Regards,
Gert

[fignewton]

Yeah recording the piece really helped me get more comfortable with it. It is definitely one of those pieces that feels a bit like walking on a tightrope while playing, but I'll try to bring more extroversion to it, especially in that Courante. The first English suite has 4 of those Courantes.. so tricky.