Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Complete Orchestral Works Originals; Transcriptions; Reconstructions Volume 2: Violin Concertos It seems that only a...
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685-1750): Complete Orchestral Works
Originals;
Transcriptions; Reconstructions
Volume 2: Violin
Concertos
It seems that only a relatively small part of Bach's orchestral ceuvre
has been preserved for posterity. Much has been speculated about the
reasons for the above-average losses in this particular field, but up till now
no really conclusive reasons have been found. The fact that so few works for
instrumental ensemble have survived particularly from the Weimar and Cothen
periods, during which the composer directed so many excellent ensembles, has
led many researchers to the hypothesis that Bach was obliged to leave the
majority of his compositions in these places when he moved on to another post -
a common custom for which much evidence can be found in many eighteenth century
documents; other considerations establish a connection with the distribution of
Bach's compositions to his heirs after his death. Whatever the case, only one
thing is certain: that at the latest with Bach's death a veil of oblivion began
to sink over his orchestral works - partly caused also by a profound change in
taste which began in the middle of the eighteenth century. Thus great effort
was necessary in the course of the Bach renaissance at the beginning of the
nineteenth century to win back these works, which by then were completely
unknown even to Bach connoisseurs, into the performance repertoire.
Today Bach's orchestral works enjoy an enduring popularity once more.
Intensive study of this repertoire, which in spite of the regrettable gaps is
in many ways incomparable, has led to the realization that only a part of the
works can be regarded as original compositions, whereas many of the concertos
in the form in which they are known today represent transcriptions of pieces
written earlier. Among the works of the first-named category are the Brandenburg
Concertos and the three Violin Concertos, among the transcriptions
are all the concertos for one to three harpsichords, which are presumed to be
based on lost works for various melody instruments. The Concerto for four
harpsichords, BWV 1065 is a special case in that Bach did not take one of
his own works as a basis but, exceptionally, a work by Antonio Vivaldi.
Comparative studies on Bach's technique of rearranging works have led again and
again to speculations about the possible form and structure of the lost works
on which the arrangements are based, and as a consequence to attempts at
reconstruction which have resulted in pieces which are stylistically convincing
and which have proved their worth in practice; within the context of this
recording these works are intended to help fill the gaps mentioned above.
The present complete recording of Bach's orchestral works illustrates
graphically the enormous musical variety and compositional quality of this
sphere of his creative work. We meet the composer for the first time around
1715 on his first pinnacle of mastery (Brandenburg Concerto No. 5) and
accompany him for approximately a quarter of a century up to the sublime works
of his maturity - the Overture BWV 1067 and the Triple Concerto BWV
1044.
Bach's violin concertos were slow to establish themselves in the musical
life of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Audiences whose musical
education consisted of the symphonic concertos of the Classical and Romantic
composers took exception to their "old-fashioned" style, and great
violin virtuosi doubted whether they could make a brilliant impression with them. Only gradually did one come to realise
that the Bach concertos were dedicated to a different aesthetic ideal which was
no longer directly comprehensible in more recent times, representing early but
by no means imperfect forms of a genre which did not reach maturity until
later. Bach's individual treatment of the concerto form which had been taken
over from Italy at the beginning of the eighteenth century is based - to put it
briefly - on a motivic-thematic integration of the solo part in the ensemble
together with a contrapuntal development involving all levels of the musical
texture, to which sometimes even the concertante principle takes second place.
The Concerto in
A minor BWV 1041 has come down to us in the form of an original set of parts
dating from the period around 1730, and it is quite possible that this was the
time of composition and not earlier. Consequently the work belongs in the
context of Bach's work with the students of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, the
direction of which he had taken over in the spring of 1729. The striking aspects
of the concerto are the way solo and tutti themes are even more subtly
interwoven than in the Concerto in E major, probably written
considerably earlier, and the transparent polyphonic texture of the
composition. A serious, densely-textured first movement is followed by a
harmonically bold Andante, in which an expressive cantilena unfolds over
an almost omnipresent bass theme. The final movement is in the form of a fugal Gigue,
the character of which is determined by the agitated 9/8 rhythm and the
continually intensifying virtuosity of the soloist.
The Concerto in
E major BWV 1042 was presumably written, as can be concluded from various
stylistic features, during Bach's term of office as master of music at the
court of Cothen (1718-1723). The first movement begins with a concise triadic
motif, followed by a series of developing and contrasting ideas. A small but
significant aspect of the close association of the solo instrument with the tutti
group are the short interpolations of the violin in the introductory
ritornello. In the further course of the movement the motifs introduced at the
beginning are treated in various different ways and connected with one another
- without the euphony and comprehensibility of the composition being reduced in
any way. In the second movement a far-reaching cantabile lament on the
violin unfolds above a virtually ostinato bass theme, while the third
movement, a dance-like rondo, takes up the mood of the beginning again.
The Concerto for
two violin, in D minor BWV 1043 is today one of the best-known and
most frequently performed works of the composer, above all by virtue of its
soulful, song-like middle movement. The customary term "Double
Concerto" is only in a limited sense a suitable characterization of this
composition, for really it is a group concerto in which Bach realised to a
considerable extent the concept of the juxtaposition of all participating parts
on a basis of equality and thus also levelled the difference between ritornello
and episode. This modification of the concerto concept is already indicated
in the original title of the work, in which the composer describes the piece as
"Concerto...6". Like the concerto in A minor, the composition is not
one of the works of the Cothen period, but was probably written around 1730 for
the Leipzig Collegium Musicum.
The Concerto in
D minor BWV 1052 has survived only in the form of a harpsichord
concerto, but the figurations of the solo part disclose the fact that this is
the transcription of a lost violin concerto. It is not easy to fit this unusual
work conclusively into the correct historical context, and in the past doubts
about the authenticity of this piece have repeatedly been expressed - certainly
unjustly, for as far as we know no other composer apart from Bach cultivated
such a concentrated and expressive concerto style in the first half of the
eighteenth century. In unrivalled compositional mastery the piece
develops musical concepts which had already determined the form and structure
of the A minor Concerto: dense contrapuntal texture, motivic development
of the accompaniment, a sombre mood almost throughout and a high degree of
instrumental virtuosity, which at the same time always takes second place to
the idea of the work.
Peter Wollny
Translation: Diana
Loos