Just as the French Suites of the baroque master are only French because they were published under the title Suites pour le clavecin, the English Suites are not English either. The origin of the title is a complete enigma.
They were never published during Bach's lifetime, but a handwritten copy once existed with the inscription "fait pour les Anglois". Then speculations began, ranging from a wrong interpretation of what was written (someone understood "Anglois" where it could say something else) to the possibility that they were indeed written for an anonymous English nobleman who would have requested them to Bach during a visit to Köthen. The debate continues.
The Six "English" Suites
The group of six keyboard suites was likely composed in the 1720s, shortly before the French Suites, and possibly in Köthen where the master served as Kappellmeister from 1717 to 1723. Speculation aside, they must have been composed for the private use of pupils, relatives, and acquaintances. Whoever did read "Anglois" may also have read "Angoisses", griefs, given the difficulty of many of its movements.
The dances, or movements
Like the "French" suites, the six "English" suites maintain the traditional structure, with their four movements, or dances: allemande - courante - sarabande - gigue, to which are added, between the sarabande and the gigue, a variable number of supplementary movements such as a minuet, a gavotte, bourré, or an aria. The difference is that in the "English" Bach incorporated a prelude, at the beginning (as expected), which will no longer appear in the later French suites.
It is the section that is often played as an encore after a performance. Its great technical complexity lends itself to the performer's brilliance.
Prelude from the English Suite No. 2 in A minor
Just over four minutes of a remarkable exercise in counterpoint. The outstanding rendition is by a beautiful and very young Martha Argerich, in a 1969 recording. The video, badly edited, starts late, missing a couple of notes at the beginning, but it is still very worthwhile.
