Description
The enthusiasm which Prince Johann Ernst of Sachsen-Weimar (1696-1715) must have had for the new Italian concertos that he heard played by the blind organist Jan Jacob de Graaf on the organ of the Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam, can be imagined by the trunk loads of published and manuscript concertos which were transported back to the Red Palace in Weimar, where new shelves had to be constructed in the library to accommodate all the music. Moreover, Italianate concertos were composed by Prince Johann Ernst himself. No doubt it was politically correct for J.S. Bach, who was employed as Court Organist and Chamber Musician at Weimar from 1708 to 1717, to arrange two of them for organ. The prince's concertos, arranged here for two harpsichords, have been criticised for their lack of harmonic development, but his inexperience can be forgiven by his early death at the age of 19. They include some brilliant figurations, and, by today's standards of musical education, his achievement is remarkable.