LDV115-6

25 MICHIAKI UENO The manuscript of the Fifth Suite, in the hand of Bach’s second wife Anna Magdalena Bach, is headed ‘Suitte 5 discordable’, an indication that the fourth string should be tuned a tone lower, thus making it possible to perform four-note chords. This suite, generally regarded as the most complex of the six, contains a perilously difficult fugue, the only one in the entire cycle, incorporated in the Prélude: a beautiful movement in which the tone colours of each string are highlighted in turn. The solemnity of the Allemande is matched by the energy of the Courante, followed in its turn by the lament of the Sarabande. Could this be a murmured recollection of a cantata or an old Passion setting? The two Gavottes will not stand for any grandiloquence. They regain a taste for rhythm and liveliness, which bursts forth in the Gigue. The final suite, the Sixth, is thought to have been composed for a five-stringed instrument, probably the violoncello piccolo, which Bach was later to use in several cantatas. This instrument made it possible to play in a very high tessitura, something that poses serious problems for today’s performers, who do not have this extra string. What a curious Prélude, exploring obsessive formulas and rhythms! The Baroque ornaments of the Allemande vanish amid the lively dance of the Courante. Melody comes to the fore in the Sarabande before the Gavottes imitate a charming choreography and the Gigue conjures up a hunting call.