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Bach - Orchestral Suite No.1 - Fragment

2,799 views · Published 18 November 2014 · 1:42 · Indexed 29 October 2026

Channel: Concertgebouworkest · 2014 · Music

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Early-music pioneer Giovanni Antonini leads the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1. The festive suite, consisting of an overture and six baroque dances, is a masterpiece of baroque counterpoint.

Bach’s Orchestral Suite no. 1
Bach’s festive Orchestral Suite No. 1 is a masterpiece of baroque counterpoint. Counterpoint – one of the pillars on which Western music history is built – is the technique through which a composer can allow two or more melodies to sound simultaneously, in such a manner that the result is greater than the sum of its parts. Johann Sebastian Bach was a master of baroque counterpoint and acted as a model for many composers after him. His Orchestral Suite No. 1 has seven movements: an Overture and six baroque dances, namely the Courante, Gavotte, Forlane, Menuet, Bourrée and Passepied.

Giovanni Antonini, conductor
Giovanni Antonini made two guest appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, in 2009 and 2013. In 1985, the Italian conductor and virtuoso of the recorder and Baroque transverse flute co-founded Il Giardino Armonico, a pioneering Italian early-music ensemble playing 17th- and 18th-century music on period instruments. Like Harnoncourt, Brüggen, Koopman, Gardiner among others, Antonini is regarded as one of the leaders of the historical performance practice.

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