Concerto in G major after Vivaldi
BWV 926 performed by Kanji Daito
Maltezerhuis, Utrecht
Behind the music
Story
Story
Extra videos
Extra videos
Credits
Credits
Vivaldi in Weimar
Bach broadens his musical horizons
It’s pretty hard to imagine a world without Vivaldi’s violin concertos. Who hasn’t grown up with the Four Seasons, Tempesta di mare or Il grosso Mogul, on the radio, on record or even as background music in shops and cafés etc?
Well… Bach, for instance! He grew up with suites and concerti grossi in which the ensemble and the soloist(s) entered into dialogue on an equal footing. Then along came Vivaldi, and the relationship between ensemble and soloist became more extreme. Instead of sharing out the material fairly, the orchestra was given a ritornello, a recognisable musical theme that recurs like a chorus, while the soloist could indulge in all sorts of variations and elaborations in the intervening solo passages. This alternation between fixed, recurring sections and free, improvisational solo moments provides tension and coherence. While Bach’s German predecessors were more cautious, more complex in line and more introverted, Vivaldi went for momentum, contrast and virtuosity.
When Bach managed to lay his hands on a source of Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto RV299, he set to work himself on this sensational new genre. In his transcription, he succeeds in playing out this distinction between solo and tutti wonderfully well, in the timbres and textures afforded by the harpsichord. And with clever additions here and there, he ensures that full justice is done to the Vivaldian essence, even without an orchestra.
Young talent
Once every two or three years, the Netherlands Bach Society organises a talent development project for gifted young musicians under the age of 18. The projects, which focus on the performance practice of Bach’s music, allows us to bring talented youngsters into contact with historical performance practice and give them deeper insight into Bach’s music. In this talent development project, we worked with keyboardists of the future. Seven very talented international youngsters between twelve and eighteen years old were selected from auditions to take two masterclasses about Bach, the harpsichord and baroque playing techniques and styles, given by Siebe Henstra. Each keyboardist rehearsed movements from the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, including the Nine Little Preludes, BWV 924-932, which Bach wrote to use in lessons with his son Wilhelm Friedemann. The rehearsed works were recorded for All of Bach in October 2024, at the Maltezerhuis in Utrecht.
- BWV
- 973
- Title
- Concerto in G major after Vivaldi
- Instrument
- harpsichord
- Genre
- harpsichord works
- Year
- Around 1715
- City
- Weimar
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 18 Sep 2025
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- Recording date
- 16 October 2024
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- Location
- Maltezerhuis, Utrecht
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- Harpsichord
- Kanji Daito
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- Instrument
- Titus Crijnen, 1992 after Johannes Ruckers, 1638
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- Director and camera
- Robin van Erven-Dorens
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Pim van der Lee
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- Music recording, edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Martijn van Beenen
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- Lights
- Ernst-Jan Thieme
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- Data handling
- Brechtje van Riel
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Producer
- Lisanne Marlou de Kok
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