The presentation of this Finnish recording of Bach's French Suites for harpsichord is a bit confusing. Punctiliously attached to each track in the listing are the letters "FIABA" and a seven-digit number beginning with 9900 -- whatever these mean. The liner notes quote extensively from eighteenth century treatises describing the dances that made up the suite of Bach's day, but it's not clear what these descriptions have to do with Finnish harpsichordist
Elina Mustonen's interpretation. Perhaps the point is that the theorists quoted don't actually talk much about the rhythms of the dances themselves, confining themselves mostly to questions of ornamentation and affect -- the dance rhythms are almost unrecognizable in
Mustonen's rather remote readings. The gravity of the sarabandes in this set, for example, is replaced by a sort of languid charm. But the most distinctive aspect of the recording is the unequal-temperament tuning; with the reverberant environment of the church where the recording was made, you'll be hearing a lot of beats. It's disorienting, but, as usual with the older tunings, the ear adjusts after you listen for a while. And in general
Mustonen's reserved, precise performances may grow on you. She's as far as can be imagined from the racing, subjective Bach performances on piano of
Glenn Gould or
András Schiff, or even from the intense, strongly articulated tones cultivated by many recent harpsichordists. But for Bach suites that are as dry as Finnish vodka,
Mustonen may be just the right flavor.