The first Overture or Suite, in the key of C major, is scored for two oboes , bassoon, strings and continuo. The opening Ouverture, in French style, follows the strongly marked rhythm of the introduction with the customary fugue, in which the solo woodwind instruments have their own moments of solitary prominence, in contrast to the strings and continuo. The first of the dances is a Courante, not paired, as it usually is, with an Allemande. Of the following dances, which include an example of the less usual Italian "forlana", adopted into the French court tradition, four are played alternatively, with a second dance framed by a repetition of the first of the pair. The second "Gavotte" allows a fuller part to the solo woodwind instruments, while the second "Menuet" is for strings and continuo and the second Bourrée for wind only. The Suite ends with two "Passepieds", a faster version of the Minuet, with rhythmic features that had, by eigthteenth century, become characteristic.

Capella Istropolitana
Jaroslav Dvorak, conductor

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