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Bach Orchestral Suite 4 program notes, recordings and sheet music.

BWV 1070 is often listed as "Orchestral Suite No. 5" in some older recordings or catalogs, modern musicology almost certainly attributes this work not to Johann Sebastian Bach, but to his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784).

Program Notes: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (formerly J.S. Bach?) – Orchestral Suite in G minor, BWV 1070

Welcome, dear concert-goer, to a delightful and slightly mysterious journey into the Baroque. Tonight, we present a piece often encountered as "Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 5," BWV 1070, though its true authorship has been a fascinating puzzle for musicologists. While it carries the BWV number (designating it as a work once attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach), the consensus among scholars today points to his eldest and famously complex son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, as the most likely composer.

A Case of Mistaken Identity (and a Brilliant Son!)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a prolific composer, and after his death, many of his scores, and those of his talented children, were copied and circulated. The manuscript for this "Suite No. 5" was copied by Christian Friedrich Penzel, one of J.S. Bach's last pupils, in 1753. Penzel simply noted "di Sig. Bach" ("by Mr. Bach"), and for a long time, it was assumed to be the master himself.

However, several musical clues suggest otherwise:

  • Key Shifts: Unlike J.S. Bach's strictly homotonal suites (where all movements stay in the same key), the third movement of this suite, an "Aria," boldly shifts to E-flat Major. This kind of harmonic

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    Orchestral Suite-4 D-Major BWV1069   
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