Bach: Concertos For Harpsichords

Soloists:Cologne Co

Regular: £11.49

Sale: £11.49
Regular

Out of Stock

Unit Price: per

Cat No: 8554217

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943421727

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Bach

Description
Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750) Concertos for Two,Three and Four HarpsichordsBorn in Eisenach in 1685 into a continuing dynasty of musicians, JohannSebastian Bach was orphaned in 1695 and went, with his older brother Jacob, tolive with their elder brother Johann Christoph Bach, organist at Ohrdruf. Hecontinued his schooling there until 1700, acquiring his early skill as anorganist and, it may be presumed, as an expert on the construction of theinstrument. From Ohrdruf he moved to L??neburg as a chorister, employment thatallowed his continuing education. After employment as a musician at the courtin Weimar in 1703, he next held positions as an organist at Arnstadt, then atM??hlhausen and then again at Weimar, now as court organist. He remained in Weimaruntil 1717, holding the position of Konzertmeister from 1714 and movingin 1717 to Cothen as Court Kapellmeister to the young Prince Leopold ofAnhalt-Cothen. He only left after the Prince's marriage to a woman withoutmusical interests made a position that had been very congenial to him now verymuch less so. In 1723 he took what seemed to him socially inferior employmentas Cantor at the Choir School of St Thomas in Leipzig, with responsibility forthe training of choristers and the provision of music for the principal citychurches. He remained in Leipzig for the rest of his life, but was able tobroaden his musical activities when, in 1729, he also took over the directionof the University Collegium musicum, founded earlier in the century by Telemann.Whereas in his earlier years there had been need for organ music, Cothen, withits Pietist court, called principally for secular music. Leipzig demanded aquantity of church music, largely satisfied in the first years that Bach wasthere, but the Collegium musicum itself allowed a return to the secularinstrumental music that had been a principal preoccupation of the Cothen years.Bach's solo and multiple harpsichord concertos date from the years 1735to 1740 and were intended for the Collegium musicum. For these works, in whichhis sons could join him as soloists, he turned largely to earlier compositions,now re-arranged to create a new form, the keyboard concerto, much as Handel, inthe same years, was creating the form of the organ concerto.The Concerto in C minor for Two Harpsichords, BWV1060, wasderived from an earlier double concerto for solo violin and oboe, with theinevitable strings and continuo. The work is constructed on the contemporaryprinciple of a recurrent ritornello, heard at the beginning, returningbetween episodes in which the solo instruments, with basso continuo anddiscreet orchestral assistance, enjoy greater prominence. The Largo ovveroAdagio finds the two harpsichords in dialogue accompanied by the pluckednotes of the strings in 12/8 metre. The concerto ends with an Allegro inwhich the principal theme is heard, the opening figure of which is to be heardagain, with varied figuration around it, notably when three rapid notes are setagainst one
Tracklisting