Bach CD I-05: Violin Concertos BWV 1041-1042 / 1052 / 1056 / 1064
15 videos • 96 views • by jotaman7 VIOLIN CONCERTOS Except for his fourteen concertos for one to four harpsichords, Bach composed most of his concertos for one or more solo instruments and orchestra in the congenial athmosphere of the court of the young Prince Leopold at Cöthen, between 1717 and 1723. Prince Leopold, Bach’s junior by nine years, was an enthousiastic music lover and proficient player of the violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord. When Bach took up his position at the Cöthen Hofkapelle the orchestra comprised 18 musicians. It was here that Bach composed much of his harpsichord and chamber music, but also concertos for violin and for wind instruments, most of them now lost. The only concertos that have survived in their original form are the six Brandenburg Concertos and the three violin concertos, one in A minor (BWV 1041), one in E major (BWV 1042) and one for two violins and strings in D minor (BWV 1043). It may seem strange that only three violin concertos from the Cöthen period are preserved, while there exist considerably more transcriptions of such works for solo harpsichord and strings from Bach’s Leipzig years. Did Bach discard some of the originals as soon as the arrangements were completed? Or were some violin concertos lost after Bach’s death, possibly through the negligence of his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann? These questions probably will never been answered. The three extant violin concertos mark the climax of Bach’s violin music, together with the sonatas and partitas for violin solo and the sonatas for violin and cembalo obbligato. They were presumably written for the leader of the Cöthen orchestra, Joseph Spiess, a talented violinist recruted from Berlin in 1714. In the Concerto or two violins Spiess might have been joined by his colleague Martin Friedrich Marcus, also from Berlin. The Concerto in G minor (BWV 1056) has been reconstructed from the well known Concerto for harpsichord and strings in F minor (BWV 1056). The Largo exists also as Sinfonia to Cantata No.156, Ich steh mit einem Fuss im Grabe. Also the Concerto for violin and strings in D minor (BWV 1052) has been reconstructed from a version for harpsichord which Bach himself arranged from an original for violin that has not been preserved. The Concerto for violin, strings and basso continuo in E major (BWV 1042) is very popular for its familiarity and technical brilliance. In the first movement ritornello form is combined with da-capo form. The crisp tutti theme at the beginning prevails over the whole movement. From a structural point of view, the orchestra and solo violin mix together far more than in the former concerto. The second movement, an Adagio in C sharp minor, is a tender cantilena with the same plan as the A minor concerto. The orchestra intervenes only at the beginning and at the end, the violinist’s lyrical solo line is backed by its persistent figuration. The finale, Allegro assai, in rondo form shows passepied-like vivid rhythm. Five identical ritornelles flank the soloist’s four episodes. The Concerto for violin, strings and basso continuo in A minor (BWV 1041) is in the three movement Vivaldi form, fast-slow-fast, unlike many other German concertos by e.g. Telemann that have four movements. The ritornello form is used for the outer fast movements; this plan is common to all five concertos recorded here. But, by developing Vivaldi’s simple principle with his original ideas, Bach transformed it into a richer and more diversified form. In the first movement, the clear contrast between solo and tutti is abandoned, so that the whole might be flowing and more unified. It starts with a lively tempo, in which ritornelles and episodes for the soloist alternate in a regular and symmetrical way. The second movement, Andante in C major, is a beautiful cantilena with ostinato bass, a simple harmonic backing that is repeated over and over again. The fast finale, Allegro assai, shows gigue rhythm. The Concerto for three violins in D major (BWV 1064) is a recent arrangement of Bach’s Concerto for three harpsichords and strings in C major (BWV 1064). The earliest source of the harpsichord version dates from c.1740. According to tradition Bach would have composed the Concerto for three harpsichords for his own use, to present himself together with his eldest sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel in the meetings of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum in the early 1730s. As Bach research has shown, Bach, when writing his Concerto for three harpsichords, used an original version for three violins and strings now lost and probably earlier than his Brandenburg Concertos. Clemens Romijn