Johann Sebastian Bach: Concertos

Liner notes

To the best of our knowledge, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote 25 concertos, including the Six Brandenburg Concertos, the fragments and the transcriptions, but it is certain that a lot of them have been lost. Documents support that during his Weimar years Bach dealt a lot with the Italian concerto style. However, none of his concertos can undoubtedly be dated to that period. The majority of his concertos —at least the Brandenburg ones— were probably composed during the Köthen period (1717—23), but with the exception of three of them they are known in the form of the harpsichord concerto transcription made in Leipzig. The original ones had been lost. Two of three concertos recorded here are reconstructed on the basis of the harpsichord version: the Concerto in F is the transcription of the Concerto in E for harpsichord (BWV 1053), the Concerto in C is the transcription of the Concerto in A for harpsichord (BWV 1055). The original solo instruments are supposed to have been the oboe and the oboe d’amore. As regards the Concerto in d minor, not only the original oboe concerto version has been lost, but also the remaining harpsichord version (BWV 1059) is fragmentary: just 9 bars. Nevertheless, it is possible to determine the identity with certain movements of the Church Cantata No. 35. (“Geist und Seele wird verwirret”). After the reconstruction by Arnold Mehl, the first and the third movements of the concerto are derived from the two opening symphonies of the two-part cantata, while the slow movement is the transcription of the “Largo” part of the Harpsichord Concerto in f minor (BWV 1056), originally written for violin.

Dávid Zsoldos

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Imre Lachegyi is the president and one of the major artists of Consort Music Foundation.

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