The Bach Players’ last CD (Pachelbel and Bach: canons and cantatas) was received with enthusiasm, earning maximum stars in reviews for the Dutch magazine Luister and the British Early Music Today. In this vivid new recording, the group turns its attention to some of the musical currents that surrounded J S Bach.

This is a selection of pieces that J S Bach had in his library and which provide a context for his celebrated Orchestral Suite in B minor. Some of these works J S Bach copied in his own hand (Dieupart, Johann Bernhard Bach and Steffani), and one exists in his brother Christoph’s hand (Alcide by Marais, in arrangement for harpsichord).

In these lively performances The Bach Players highlight the importance of the French style to J S Bach and his German contemporaries.