Oboe and violin in the spotlight

Bach: well-known concertos and sinfonias

Bach: well-known concertos and sinfonias Bach: well-known concertos and sinfonias

The background

Bach: well-known concertos and sinfonias

Those who play a keyboard instrument and love Bach are in luck. Bach played keyboard himself and left behind a huge repertoire for keyboard instruments, many of which you can play on anything at all that has keys (organ, harpsichord or clavichord, or even piano).

The original was lost, now there's only this transcription.“

The well-known keyboard concertos were nearly all created in the second half of Bach’s career. So did he write and play fewer concertos before that? Probably not – but much of his earlier repertoire has been lost. Moreover, many of his later keyboard concertos actually appear to be arrangements of concertos for other instruments. The originals did not survive and only the arrangements have been handed down to us. Fortunately, it is possible to recreate such a lost original.

In this programme, you hear the results of this kind of deciphering. The concerto for oboe and violin is derived from a concerto for two harpsichords. And the Violin Concerto in D minor is familiar to us as a harpsichord concerto, just like the oboe concerto.

The concert

Works and Performance

Works

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
Sinfonia from cantata ‘Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis’,
BWV 21 Concerto in C minor for oboe and violin,
BWV 1060 Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052R
Sinfonia from cantata ‘Mer hahn en neue Oberkeet’, BWV 212
Oboe Concerto in F major, BWV 1053R
Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV 1041

Performers

Netherlands Bach Society
conducted by Shunske Sato

Emma Black, oboe

Experience more

View this work on All of Bach

Violin concerto in E major

orchestral works, BWV 1042

Harpsichord concerto in A major

harpsichord works, orchestral works, BWV 1055