Stylishly packaged, beautifully recorded, and brilliantly played,
Christophe Rousset's 2003 recording of
Bach's English Suites is just so French. It's delightful: you'll smile at a Minuet, you'll laugh at a Gigue, and afterwards you'll chuckle when you remember the Mussette. It's touching: you'll sigh over an Allemande and be moved by a Sarabande. It's dazzling: you'll be persuaded by a Prelude, swayed by a Courante, and seduced by a Bourree. Who wouldn't? But the question is, how long can it last? Will
Rousset's witty playing wear thin over the long haul? Will his poetic rhetoric sound more like eccentric prosody? Will what now seems so enticing and seductive come to seem willful and manipulative? Who can know and who could care?
Rousset's performance convinces and compels now. Tomorrow everyone can go home to
Leonhardt and
Gould. Tonight, let it be
Rousset.