Suite No.3 in D major, BWV 1068

Overture

Air

Gavotte

Bourrée

Gigue

The third of Bach’s orchestral suites is famous above all for its second movement, the so-called “Air on the G-string” where the first violins carry an expressive melodic line which, in the original version, never touches the G-string even for a moment. It is preceded here by a characteristic French Overture beginning with slow introduction, going on to a quick middle section - in this case a brilliant fugue - and returning at the end to the slow tempo established at the start. The trumpets and drums heard to such good effect in the Overture are silent in the Air, which is scored for strings alone and which would never have been associated with the G-string if a German violinist called August Wilhlemj hadn’t got hold of it and made a romantic arrangement of it in 1871.

Although the Third is the only one of the Suites that includes an Air, a Gavotte is included in all but the Second. The trumpets and drums return here to join the strings and a pair of oboes in what is actually a double Gavotte consisting of two distinct dances, the first of which is repeated after the second. The comparatively short Bourrée, another dance of French origin, is followed by well developed and vigorous Gigue calling for special agility from the first of the three trumpeters.

Although no one knows exactly when the four Suites were written, incidentally, it seems likely that the Third dates from some time after Bach became director of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, which gave regular public concerts, in 1729.

Ouverture

Air

Gavotte

Bourrée

Gigue

Like the other two works in this notably festive programme, the Suite No.3 in D was written after Bach had settled in Leipzig as Cantor of St Thomas’s Church in 1723. It was a job which, with its multifarious composing, performing and teaching duties, kept him excessively busy. Even so, when he was offered the directorship of the Collegium Musicum, an organisation independent of the Church and dedicated to giving public concerts, he accepted it – perhaps because it gave him the opportunity to compose orchestral and chamber music, which he had been free to write in his previous appointment at Cöthen but which his onerous obligation to provide music for the Church services in Leipzig had caused him to neglect.

The Suite No.3 in D, which is though to have been written shortly after the composer’s appointment to the Collegium Musicum in 1729, is particularly famous today for its second movement – the so-called “Air on the G-string” where the first violins carry an expressive melodic line which, in the original version, never touches the G-string even for a moment. It is preceded here by a characteristic French-style Ouverture beginning with slow introduction, going on to a quick middle section, in this case a brilliant fugue, and returning at the end to the slow tempo established at the start. The trumpets and drums heard to such good effect in the Ouverture are silent in the Air, which is scored for strings alone and which would never have been associated with the G-string if a German violinist called August Wilhlemj hadn’t got hold of it and made a romantic arrangement of it in 1871.

Although the Third is the only one of the four Suites that includes an Air, a Gavotte is included in all but the Second. The trumpets and drums return here to join the strings and a pair of oboes in what is actually a double Gavotte consisting of two distinct dances, the first of which is repeated after the second. The comparatively short Bourrée, another dance of French origin, is followed by well developed and vigorous Gigue calling for special agility from the first of the three trumpeters.