Bach's magnificent Partitas represent the peak of the Baroque instrumental suite, and on this recording were played on a replica of a harpsichord by Michael Mietke c.1700, with whom Bach was closely associated during the period of the composition of the Partitas, and he ordered a harpsichord from Mietke while he was Capellmeister at Schloss Cöthen.

A feature of this recording is the use of performance indications, notably ornamentation, found in annotations written by Bach's students in exemplars of the original edition.   The liner notes were written by Dr Richard Jones, the editor of the Bach Partitas in the Neue Bach Ausgabe, a complete edition of Bach's entire output.

Reviews:

"It is tempting to say that it has been a privilege to experience Bach performances of such fastidiously fine quality, enshrined in a recording that is an object lessons in how the job should be done. But that would be tantamount to offering no more than a nod to the work of Robert Woolley. His profound musical understanding has for years been behind some of the most plausibly artistic solutions to the problems surrounding music of the Baroque.

He has a virtuoso technique too, which is certainly needed here. Bach may have courted popularity with graphic titles and a mixture of French and Italian styles (as Forkel said, the works "made a great noise in the musical world") but he made no concessions to those of limited technical ability. Woolley gets his fingers round the notes without any difficulty whatsoever but there is a lot more to his playing than mere executive ease. Unlike many other harpsichordists, he combines athletic buoyancy with graceful nuances (the judicious embellishments don't stand out like sore thumbs either) and a sensuous warmth that transcends criticism. Try the Sarabande of No. 6, a large-scale piece played imposingly but not ponderously. Take in the Overture of No. 4, its introduction double-dotted and grandly spacious, the ensuing fugue rhythmically resilient; and then experience the depth of feeling Woolley extracts from the following Allemande.

This is Bach with an illuminatingly sensitive human face. Chandos's sound, wisely distanced, without cramped harmonics and ear lacerating transients, captures its expressivity to perfection."

Classic CD
.

Classic CD CHOICE: Poised, ideally engaging performances