Suzuki Book 2 students play 2 movements from Bach’s Orchestral Suite in B Minor. If you haven’t previously started comparing recordings of the pieces you’re working on, now’s a great time to start! Ideally, you’ll have begun the process by the time you start the Handel Bourree in Book 1, and certainly the Gluck Minuet in Book 2 (and the rest of the Dance of the Blessed Spirits in Book 3 – oh, so many lovely recordings of that one by awesome flutists and each one a little different! Stay tuned – I’m hoping to catch up with a bunch more blog entries comparing Suzuki repertoire!). But by the B Minor Minuet in Book 2, comparing recordings is definitely an integral part of the process of making choices of how YOU want to play music!
Here are a few YouTube recordings I’ve found to get you started. Purchasing CDs or iTunes recordings is a really good idea (one of my favorites is the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, J.S. Bach Orchestral Suites 1-4, with the B Minor Suite featuring William Bennett on flute).
Until you’ve started your collection of purchased music, YouTube videos are a great way to start (and to continue to hear a wider variety of perspectives!). There are two movements from the suite included in Book 2 – the Polonaise (second from last piece in the book) and the Minuet (4th piece in Book 2).
Here are a few recordings I’ve found – notice how differently those appoggiaturas are interpreted from one to another! But notice that all the ones selected here do have the appoggiaturas ON the beat, rather than before the beat. I’ve listed the time each of those two movements begins after the links below, so you can scroll directly to the movement you’d like to hear. Note that in the Suite, they come in the opposite order from the book, so you’ll notice I’ve listed the Polonaise first, and the Minuet second (other than Galway’s, where the Polonaise is not included and the Minuet is first up).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfiEX4QDbv8 Karl Münchinger & Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra P: 14:15 M: 17:54 – notice that the appoggiaturas are a full quarter note; Polonaise: 14:15; Minuet 17:54
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tut57FfdmS0 Elena Yakovleva, Kaliningrad String Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Andreev. Polonaise 13:15; Minuet 16:32
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqBr5f5797A Galway – Minuet only
This was just a quick scan – if you find any more links you like, please let me know! You can post them in the comments section so others can check them out easily!
