J.S. Bach: French Suite no. 3, BWV 814 - Zvi Meniker, harpsichord

Johann Sebastian Bach: Suite in B Minor, BWV 814 ("French" Suite no. 3) Allemande: 0:05 Courante: 3:52 Sarabanda: 6:03 Angloise: 8:43 Giga: 10:05 Menuet: 12:09 Zvi Meniker, harpsichord Recorded on April 30, 2020 The Menuet of this Suite is not yet present in the earliest manuscript (1st Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, 1722). In the copy I use, by Bach's student Bernhard Christian Kayser, it has been added as an afterthought on the only free page, before the 1st Suite. In other copies by Bach's students it is found at the end of the Suite, after the Gigue. In most modern editions it is placed before the Gigue, according to a later idea that the order of a suite is always Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, OTHERS, Gigue. Actually, in Bach's time the order was not so rigid, and it was quite common to end a suite (or even a concerto) not with a tumultuous Gigue or Allegro, but with a friendly Menuet (see Handel's Water Music and Bach's 1st Brandenburg Concerto, for example). So I play the Menuet at the end, just like Bach's students did. Harpsichord by Thomas and Barbara Wolf, Washington, D.C, after Christian Vater, Hannover 1738