Francesco Tristano’s two-disc set follows the pianist’s chart-topping album Bach: The 6 Partitas and marks the next chapter in Tristano’s “great life project” to record J.S. Bach’s complete repertoire. The project will continue with the releases of Bach’s 7 Toccatas in the fall of 2025 and the 6 French Suites in 2026.

According to J.S. Bach’s first biographer, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, Bach’s English Suites were written for an English nobleman. However, scholars now believe that they were first written in 1713-1714, when Bach was officiating at the chapel of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, and that they were most likely intended as advanced exercises for his pupils. This might explain why there were multiple copies of the complete work that existed during Bach’s lifetime. A note in a manuscript belonging to Bach’s son, Johann Christian Bach, states: “fait pour les anglois” (made for the English), and since then the moniker has been assigned to these 6 Suites.