First-class recordings of fine organ music (Virgin Classics, 4/90) and motets (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, 7/94) by Pachelbel seem to have been unable to plant his name in the minds of the general musical public other than as the composer of that admittedly attractive but absurdly over-recorded canon. The present suites (definitely for harpsichord, not organ) are all printed in the Denkmaler der Tonkunst in Bayern series, but except for Nos. 29, 32 and 33b their authorship is very questionable. Whoever wrote them, however, they contain some very impressive movements – I would instance the gigues in Nos. 36 and 29 and the allemands in Nos. 28, 29 and 26 (the last-mentioned, one of the most interesting suites in general) – and Pachelbel displays some intriguing rhythmic quirks on occasion.
Each of the suites consists of an allemand, courant and saraband, plus a “gyque” [sic] in all but two cases; No. 33 includes a lively “ballett”, Nos. 25, 36 and 28 a gavotte (that in A major a very jolly one); there are doubles in Nos. 29 and 36. Playing on a copy of a bright-toned early Flemish instrument, Joseph Payne offers clean and vital performances throughout, with neat ornaments (less profuse, except for No. 33b and the sarabands of No. 28); just now and then, in his desire for expressiveness or to draw attention to a point, he is a bit mannered for my taste, but in general his playing is most appealing, and he is recorded with absolute fidelity.'