The English Suites is the title traditionally given to J.S. Bach’s splendid collection of dances, assembled by tonality and preceded by a Prelude, probably dating from the second decade of the 18th century, perhaps before 1717. The German musicologist Johann Nikolaus Forkel states that the suites were composed for an English nobleman, but adds nothing more. Recently, scholars have made various suggestions, with some thinking that the word English would refer not so much to their style as to the notation technique used by the composer, which he had defined as Préludes avec les suites. The English Suites BWV 806-811 have always been considered a worthy counterpart to the French Suites BWV 812-817. Alessandra Artifoni, who recorded the latter for Dynamic two years ago (CDS757) now presents these counterparts on an instrument built by Tony Chinnery after Mietke (Berlin, 1702), and using Neidhardt temperament.