Bach: well-known concertos and sinfonias

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.