BWV810 is the index number of the English Suite #5 in E minor by JS Bach. (BWV stands for Bach Werke Verzeichnis or Bach Works Catalogue. To see the first page of the Prelude (first movement) of this work, please click here. To listen to Prelude in its entirety, please click on the "Audio/Video" link under the header above, and you will be redirected appropriately.) The work is the fifth in a series, beginning with BWV806 and ending with BWV811. The work -- like all the works in the series -- is a compilation of French dances arranged in a specific, unvarying pattern common to Baroque dance suites: Prelude, Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Passepied I, Passepied II, and Gigue.

Bach is thought to have composed the piece in 1715, and no later than 1725; it was written for harpsichord, but contemporary performers generally play the work on the piano. The greatest recordings include, in my estimation, those of Glenn Gould and Andras Schiff.

• Gould played Bach in a crisp, some would argue almost clinical manner, usually, but not always, exaggerating fast and slow tempi (this approach reflected his philosophy that, given the thousands of artists who perform and record the same work over and over, it was imperative that the performer interpret the composition in a way that would bring fresh insight and information to the audience). To hear his rendering BWV810 in E minor, please click here. (Gould was not only a performer but a composer as well. Click here to watch a terrific video of a performance of his four voice fugue.)

• In his interpretation of Bach's keyboard works Schiff, generally speaking, places greater emphasis than Gould on melody and line; he also plays at a considerably slower tempo. Click here to listen to Schiff play this exquisite opus.

Countless other performers have recorded the work as well (Hewitt, Perahia on piano: Dreyfus, Gilbert on harpsichord, to name just a few). However, the aforementioned artists provide what I regard as the most compelling interpretations, not only of BWV810, but of the complete keyboard works of the composer -- an individual of such complete and towering genius that his very being is regarded by some as evidence of the existence of a higher power.