Bach: French Suites

“The soundboard is painted with flowers, fruit and animals and adorned with a light blue decorative border. Around the soundboard, the case is decorated with block-printed wallpaper. The lid is embellished with a later addition: a landscape painting depicting an idyllic stream scene with four staffage figures. The viewer sees a boy gazing intently into the water, a young woman carrying provisions or something similar home, and a couple who can also only be seen from behind. A bridge and a mill bring the rural scene to life.” Without the appropriate technical terms “soundboard,” “decorative border” or “lid,” the reader would hardly associate this vivid, floral description with a keyboard instrument. This is how the renowned harpsichordist and expert in historically informed performance and basso continuo, Wolfgang Brunner, describes the instrument by Andreas Ruckers from 1628, which comes from the Flemish Ruckers family of harpsichord makers and can be heard on this recording playing Johann Sebastian Bach’s six French Suites. A correspondingly florid, most ‘Baroque’ interpretation of this core Bach repertoire can be expected.

The album has already been released digitally and on CD and is now also available as a triple vinyl.