Concertos for Harpsichord with Other Instruments
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
These notes include all of Bach's concertos that have come down to us, except 1) the Brandenburg Concertos, which are treated in separate program notes, 2) concertos for a keyboard instrument without accompaniment, and 3) surviving fragments of concertos.
By Bach's time, coffee was so well established as a popular vice that it had spawned coffeehouses all over Europe. Leipzig had several, but the proprietor of Zimmermann's Coffeehouse on the Catherinenstraße deserves our special gratitude for having had good taste not only in coffee but also in music. From 1720 until his death in 1741, he hosted concerts of the Collegium Musicum, an ensemble of professional and university musicians, in his coffeehouse on Friday evenings during the winter and in his coffee garden on Wednesday afternoons during the summer. Bach took over direction of the Collegium in 1729 and provided music for the ensemble and directed its concerts for over a decade.
For his Collegium programs, which were the closest he ever came to giving public concerts, Bach created, among other works, nearly all of his harpsichord concertos. In doing so, he essentially invented the idea of the solo keyboard concerto, the harpsichord having traditionally been an accompanist when playing with other instruments. (Only in the fifth Brandenburg Concerto had he experimented with the harpsichord as a soloist.) But the works themselves were not original compositions. All of Bach's solo and multiple harpsichord concertos, except for one double concerto in C major, are thought to be transcriptions of earlier works that were originally written for violin, oboe or other instruments. Of these earlier concertos, only three have survived, two concertos for violin and one for two violins, all of which have also come down to us in harpsichord transcriptions. But Bach undoubtedly wrote more concertos during that earlier time that are now lost. A good number of those are known only through their later transcriptions into harpsichord concertos. In a few cases, Bach would also use a concerto movement in a sinfonia or aria in a cantata, giving us what is presumably an intermediate version, as well.
In making a harpsichord version of a concerto for violin or some other single-line instrument, Bach altered many details, some of them in order to fit the new solo instrument, but some of them may also reflect his later thoughts about an earlier work. Among other things, he needed to provide parts for the left hand, and for this, he sometimes doubled the continuo bass, but he also frequently added new material. In certain passages, he changed idiomatic violin writing into passage work that would fit better under the hands of a keyboard player. He also often added ornamentation in the harpsichord version. And typically, he would transpose a violin concerto down a whole step to bring the solo part into the compass of a keyboard.
Triple Concerto in A minor for Harpsichord, Flute, and Violin, BWV 1044
Unlike Bach's other concertos, this triple concerto is a pastiche of music from two of his earlier works, neither of which is a concerto. The first and third movements are adaptations of an early harpsichord prelude and fugue in A minor (BWV 894), a piece that Bach wrote sometime before 1717, during his years in Weimar. The middle movement, an Adagio, adapts material from the slow movement of an organ sonata in D minor (BWV 527), which itself is thought possibly to be based on a lost trio sonata.
The concerto is believed to date from sometime after 1729, when Bach was providing music for the concerts of his Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. But with the outer movements based on such an early work, it feels somewhat less concise and focused than his other concertos that are based on more mature works. The score calls for the same three soloists as the fifth Brandenburg Concerto, and the accompanying ensemble differs from that work only in that the Brandenburg Concerto has no second violin.
Concerto in F Major for harpsichord and two recorders, BWV 1057
This Concerto in F Major is Bach's later reworking of his Brandenburg Concerto No. 4. The original Brandenburg being a concerto in G major for violin and two recorders, Bach has here substituted a harpsichord for the violin soloist and transposed the piece down a step to F, a key that not only fits the range of the keyboard but that also is more comfortable for the recorders. In writing this harpsichord part, Bach has added interesting new material to the Brandenburg original, such as the long trill and waltz-like continuo chords at the beginning. In the second movement, most of the material from the original violin and recorder parts is played by the harpsichord alone, as the recorders simply become part of the tutti ensemble. The new chromatic ending to this movement is a fascinating example of how Bach was constantly rethinking old material. In the fast passagework of the last movement, he converts the notoriously tricky violin figuration to equivalently tricky but equally effective harpsichord figuration. Like his other harpsichord concertos, this adaptation of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 dates from the 1730's and would have been written for the concerts of Bach's Collegium Musicum.
Boston Baroque Performances
Concerto in F Major for Harpsichord and Two Recorders, BWV 1057
October 17, 1986
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Christopher Krueger, recorder
Dennis Godburn, recorder
December 31, 1985
Church of the Advent, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Christopher Krueger, recorder
Marilyn Boenau, recorder
January 4, 1985
First and Second Church, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Christopher Krueger, recorder
Marilyn Boenau, recorder
February 15, 1980
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Nancy Joyce, recorder
John Tyson, recorder
October 17, 1979
Colby College, New London, NH
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Nancy Joyce, recorder
John Tyson, recorder