Concerto for violin in A minor BWV 1041 — Johann Sebastian Bach

Movements

[Allegro]

Andante

Allegro assai

Concerto for harpsichord in D minor BWV 1052

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro

Concerto for violin in G minor BWV 1056

[Allegro]

Largo –

Presto

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767)

Concerto for 3 violins in F major TWV 53:F1

Allegro

Largo –

Vivace

Johann Sebastian Bach

Concerto for violin in E major BWV 1042

Allegro

Adagio

Allegro assai

Bach’s discovery of the potential of concerto form – a revelation which had an immediate and long-lasting effect on his development – can be dated fairly precisely to the second half of 1713. At that time, and possibly in 1714 too, as organist and chamber musician at the court of Weimar he was busy making keyboard arrangements of Italian concertos recently acquired by Prince Johann Ernst, a promising young composer with a particular interest in the violin concerto. In this way he transcribed at least 15 concertos (mainly for strings), including nine or ten by Vivaldi together with examples by Torelli and Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello as well as three by Johann Ernst himself. While he was no doubt already well aware of the advantages of ritornello form observed in the outer movements of these works, it was clearly the extraordinary vitality invested in it by Vivaldi – the rhythmic verve, the unfailing melodic interest, the brilliant scoring – that inspired his initial commitment to concerto forms.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concerto in A minor BWV 1041

In spite of the intense concerto activity in Weimar, it is generally believed that the earliest of Bach’s works of this kind were written, like much of his orchestral and chamber music, during his next appointment, at Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. The fact that instrumental parts for the Violin Concerto in A minor and the Double Concerto in D minor were copied by the composer in Leipzig in about 1730 does not rule out the possibility that the works originated in the previous decade or even before. At the same time they are so masterly in their treatment of ritornello form that they suggest a long experience of it.

The recurring or ritornello material in the first movement of the Violin Concerto in A minor is selected from the opening orchestral passage – most prominently the first four bars with their distinctive two-note rhythm but also, according to the circumstances, similarly short sections from the middle or the end of it. The purpose of this is to facilitate a construction which is both flexible and unpredictable. The ritornello material not only separates the solo episodes but is integrated with them in counterpoint, keeping in touch with the thematic basis of the piece while liberating the soloist to invent expressive melodic elaborations and to modulate into unexpected key areas.

The Andante second movement presents a clear distinction between the firm tread of the ostinato bass and the rhythmic freedom of the melodiously detailed line in the solo episodes between its several repetitions. Here too, however, Bach avoids textural uniformity by occasionally combining the two elements, just as he avoids structural regularity by varying the length of the periods. In the closing Allegro assai, on the other hand, soloist and orchestra have a rhythm in common, the dancing triplets characteristic of the 9/8 gigue metre that motivates the whole movement. The structure is different too in that, while the ritornello principle prevails, it has a ternary shape overall: the opening orchestral passage is repeated at the end after a prolonged solo episode in the middle. Scarcely interrupted by the orchestra, though supported by reminders of the opening bars, the central solo grows in virtuoso ambition, ending with a bravely sustained passage of bariolage.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Harpsichord Concerto in D minor BWV 1052

Bach’s 13 harpsichord concertos – seven for one harpsichord, six for two or more – were written between 1729, when he took up his post as Thomas Cantor in Leipzig, and 1738, when he wrote out the seven solo examples as a set. That they are all arrangements of violin or oboe concertos does not mean that Bach’s achievement here, in rescuing the harpsichord from continuo duties and promoting it to the rank of soloist, is any less historic.

The Concerto in D minor BWV 1052 has long been the popular favourite of the set. Although it derives from a now lost violin concerto and although all three movements had been used as cantata material – the first two as, respectively, the overture and opening chorus of Cantata No.146 “Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal,” the third as the overture to No.188 “Ich habe mein Zuversicht” – it is an outstanding example of virtuoso keyboard music. This last quality is all the more remarkable in that much of the harpsichord writing betrays its string-instrument origins, as in the minimally accompanied solo episode in the first movement where violin bariolage is so colourfully translated into keyboard terms. There is, obviously, essentially keyboard figuration too, not least in a short but centrally placed cadenza. Harpsichord capriciousness is most effectively offset by the serious demeanour of a main theme introduced by strings in unison at the start and recalled in the same way at the end.

“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,“ the words to which the Adagio is set in Cantata No.146, accurately reflect the disposition of music which strides with such fortitude on the strings (at first in unison again) while the harpsichord gives expressive voice to the thinking behind it. Without changing the key from D minor, which was central to both the first movements, the concluding Allegro clears the air, partly by way of its rhythmic verve but above all by the virtuoso exuberance which takes another passage of bariolage in its stride and sustains the pressure to the strategically placed cadenza just before the end.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Concerto in G minor BWV1056

There is no documentary evidence of the existence of any solo Violin Concerto by J.S. Bach apart from those in A minor and E major. The score of the Harpsichord Concerto in F minor suggests, however, that it is an arrangement of a Violin Concerto in G minor – a work now presumed lost but not, as its presence here confirms, beyond reconstruction.

Once the work has been restored to what is believed to be its original key of G minor – nearly all of Bach’s harpsichord arrangements of violin concertos were transposed down a tone to compensate for the restricted upper range of the keyboard instrument – there are few problems in the reconstruction. The solo echo effects briefly inserted in the opening orchestral passage seem more effective on violin than harpsichord, as do most of the extensions of the orchestral violin line to the solo instrument. If the two instances of double-stopping indicated in at least one edition, to compensate for three-note chords in the right hand of the harpsichord part, seem unidiomatic that is an argument against the interpretation rather than the theory behind it.

A more cogent argument against the theory is the presence of the Largo in a version for oboe and strings in the Cantata No. 156 “Ich steh’ mit einem Fuss im Grabe,” which has led some commentators to conclude that the work originated as an oboe concerto. Exquisitely poised over the pizzicato accompaniment of the orchestra, the melodic line is no less expressive on violin and, in spite of what could have been intended as breathing spaces for a wind instrument, it is more likely to be evenly phrased.

The closing Presto is particularly rich in echo effects. Although most of them are confined to the orchestra, there are two instances, in the middle and near the end, where they call for a series of triple-stopped chords from the soloist – which, since they are presented as a colour feature rather than harmonic stopgaps, do not seem out of place in this case.

Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerto in F major for 3 violins TWV 53:F1

Bach was by no means the only German composer to discover Vivaldi in the second decade of the century. Another was his friend and colleague Georg Philipp Telemann who was so interested in developments in Weimar, although he had by then moved from nearby Eisenach to Frankfurt, that he published six of Johann Ernst’s violin concertos two years after the Prince’s early death in 1715. The Concerto in F, however, comes from a later period – it was issued in Telemann’s Musique de Table collection in Hamburg in 1733 – and, given a composer with his own ideas on how to treat a solo ensemble of three violins, it necessarily has its own form. Both the opening Allegro and the Largo are ternary constructions, the first more complex than the second but both with a comparatively long central section featuring each of the solo instruments in turn.

The ritornello principle survives in the opening Allegro to the extent that the opening affirmation of F major in vigorous scales and arpeggios recurs (with appropriate key changes) between each of the three central solo sections and again at the end. The main source of interest, however, is in the solo liberation of each violin in turn, the third with its own material. They are re-united in a three-part texture before the last appearance of the ritornello. The Largo has such a distinctive sound to start with – as the solo violins draw their melodic lines in imitative counterpoint over the sedately pacing crotchets in the accompanying ensemble – that it seems it must take a different shape. The central section of the movement is, however, another opportunity for each of the solo instruments to assert its individuality. They take turns to lead their companions through an exchange of melody in legato quavers with just the occasional reminder of the opening material in the bass in anticipation of a full recall at the end.

The Vivace is closer to the Italian concerto form in that the opening material, with its busy repeated notes, recurs both in the middle and at the end. Of the two intervening episodes, the first involves the soloists in an elaborate three-part texture and the second gives the third violin an exclusive solo opportunity before the ritornello brings a decisive ending.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for in E major BWV 1042

It is notoriously dangerous to estimate the date of a Bach score by reference to its stylistic and other internal features. Even so, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Violin Concerto in E major is a later work than the one in A minor. Certainly, though the more relaxed in mood, it is the more ambitious of the two. While the second and third movements of the E major are of similar proportions to those of its companion, the first movement is more than twice as long as that of the A minor and seems to have been written in the intention of expanding the form well beyond its previous limits.

As in the A minor Concerto, the ritornello material of the E major is made up of phrases selected from the opening paragraph – notably, in this case, the first three crotchets in rising thirds, the dactylic rhythms, the repeated notes. But, whereas in the A minor the opening is never heard again in its entirety, in the present work not only that but also the whole of the first solo episode are repeated at the end, creating a well defined and substantial ternary structure. The middle section stands out in radiant relief, recalling ritornello phrases but also venturing into such imaginative passages as that where the orchestral violins project a sustained melody under pattering semiquavers from the soloist and that where the violin counterpoints one line with another on adjacent strings.

Of the two slow movements, both of them built on and ostinato bass, the present Adagio – at its slower tempo, in its C sharp minor harmonies and with its sheer melodic beauty – is the more expressive. It is also the more inspired in construction: after taking the risk of coming to a clear stop a third of the way through and changing the subject completely, the soloist drawing a supple line over repeated quavers on violins and violas, Bach gradually re-introduces the bass ostinato to effect a seamless recall of the opening of the movement. The closing Allegro assai, on the other hand, conforms precisely to the Italian model. Between the five appearances of the ritornello there are four solo episodes, all of the same length except the last, which is twice as long as the others as well as being the most elaborate and the most adventurous.