Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Keyboard Music - French Suites French Suites, BWV 812-817 David Cates, harpsichord Recorded November 2001 Released January 2004 Music & Arts 1124 [2cds - 95:00] Some of you might be familiar with harpsichordist David Cates from his recordings on the Wildboar label of Bach and Froberger keyboard works. Cates is an exceptional Bach performing artist, and his new recording of the French Suites matches or exceeds the exisiting ones from Davitt Moroney, Keith Jarrett, and Christopher Hogwood. There are three aspects of the set I should mention. First, Cates routinely skips the repeats of second subjects of each movement. Second, he adds a prelude before the Allemande of each Suite; there is some precedent for this approach, although I doubt that the practice will become common to future recordings of the French Suites. Third, he uses a staggering technique for his performances of the Allemandes and Sarabandes; this simply means that one or more voices are played ahead or behind the beat. The skipped repeats are not irksome, the added preludes make for an interesting presentation, and the staggering of voices is distinctive and adds to the music's poignancy. Sound quality is exceptional. Don's Conclusions: The Cates set is the most consistently excellent recording of the French Suites I've heard to date. If you insist on repeats being observed, you might turn away from this set. However, you'll be missing out on one of the finest performances of these Suites on record. Don Satz [log in to unmask]