BBC Music Magazine's Classical Albums Of 2020
Recordings by Phantasm, Dunedin Consort & the Scottish Chamber Orchestra are chosen.
Dunedin Consort is at The Yehudi Menuhin School this week to record Bach's magnificent Orchestral Suites, the final instalment in the long-running Bach Masterworks series for Linn, a series lauded as ‘nothing short of sensational’ by Gramophone.
Bach’s four Orchestral Suites (or Overtures) exemplify ‘real’, practical dances and must surely have accompanied dance in some of the environments in which the composer worked. They are outstanding in their witty motivic detail and pacing of our aural (and indeed physical) expectations. Even in these most practical of pieces there is always a sense, as so often with Bach, that they are also ‘about’ dance – they invite our contemplation and memory of movement in the very act of hearing them.
Look out for this recording next year.