Concerto for four violins in B minor Op.3 No.10 (before 1711)

The sensation caused by the publication of the 12 violin concertos of Vivaldi’s L’Estro armonico in Amsterdam in 1711 has been documented by many of his contemporaries. None of them did it more eloquently, however, than J.S. Bach, who transcribed no fewer than six of them for organ or harpsichord or, in the case of the Concerto for four violins in B minor, four harpsichords and orchestra. What impressed Bach most about the Concerto in B minor – or so it would seem from the fact that he scored his transcription (in A minor) for four harpsichords when he could surely have accommodated the violin parts on just one – was the interaction between the soloists. In the opening Allegro it seems at first that the violinists will each take a solo episode in turn. In fact, the changes in texture are quite unpredictable. The third solo entry becomes a duet for first and fourth violins, the next another duet for second and fourth, and one of the last a trio for second, third and fourth.

The textual interest of the central movement is quite different, the two violas taking solo roles alongside the violins in the Largo approach to the Larghetto section, which is an extraordinary passage of semiquaver arpeggios played simultaneously on the four violins but with a different articulation in each case, while the violas and the cello sustain a steady sostenuto of quavers. The uninhibited final Allegro is even less predictable than the first, including three episodes for all four violins, one of them enlarged into a quintet by a brief solo intervention of the cello. In string-concerto terms Bach ‘s reaction to the brilliance of Vivaldi’s scoring here and in other works was the Brandenburg Concerto No.3 in D.