Concertos for Multiple Harpsichords
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
These notes include all of Bach's concertos that have come down to us, except for concertos for a keyboard instrument without accompaniment and surviving fragments of concertos.
By Bach's time, coffee was so well established as a popular vice that it had spawned coffeehouses all over Europe. Leipzig had several, but the proprietor of Zimmermann's Coffeehouse on the Catherinenstraße deserves our special gratitude for having had good taste not only in coffee but also in music. From 1720 until his death in 1741, he hosted concerts of the Collegium Musicum, an ensemble of professional and university musicians, in his coffeehouse on Friday evenings during the winter and in his coffee garden on Wednesday afternoons during the summer. Bach took over direction of the Collegium in 1729 and provided music for the ensemble and directed its concerts for over a decade.
For his Collegium programs, which were the closest he ever came to giving public concerts, Bach created, among other works, nearly all of his harpsichord concertos. In doing so, he essentially invented the idea of the solo keyboard concerto, the harpsichord having traditionally been an accompanist when playing with other instruments. (Only in the fifth Brandenburg Concerto had he experimented with the harpsichord as a soloist.) But the works themselves were not original compositions. All of Bach's solo and multiple harpsichord concertos, except for one double concerto in C major, are thought to be transcriptions of earlier works that were originally written for violin, oboe or other instruments. Of these earlier concertos, only three have survived, two concertos for violin and one for two violins, all of which have also come down to us in harpsichord transcriptions. But Bach undoubtedly wrote more concertos during that earlier time that are now lost. A good number of those are known only through their later transcriptions into harpsichord concertos. In a few cases, Bach would also use a concerto movement in a sinfonia or aria in a cantata, giving us what is presumably an intermediate version, as well.
In making a harpsichord version of a concerto for violin or some other single-line instrument, Bach altered many details, some of them in order to fit the new solo instrument, but some of them may also reflect his later thoughts about an earlier work. Among other things, he needed to provide parts for the left hand, and for this, he sometimes doubled the continuo bass, but he also frequently added new material. In certain passages, he changed idiomatic violin writing into passage work that would fit better under the hands of a keyboard player. He also often added ornamentation in the harpsichord version. And typically, he would transpose a violin concerto down a whole step to bring the solo part into the compass of a keyboard.
Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060
This concerto, a contrapuntally dense work with a rich sonority, comes from the 1730's and is believed to be a transcription of a lost double concerto that would have been for either two violins in D minor or oboe and violin. A reconstruction of it as a concerto for oboe and violin in C minor is often played and is better known today than this version for two harpsichords, which is the only one that actually comes from Bach's pen.
Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C Major, BWV 1061
This brilliant work, dating from the early 1730's, is thought to be the only harpsichord concerto of Bach that is original and not a transcription of a piece for some other instrument. The accompanying string ensemble plays a minimal role in the outer movements, only occasionally and briefly reinforcing the harpsichords, and it is entirely tacet in the middle movement. For their part, the harpsichords not only play the slow movement by themselves, but they also have full chords in parts of the fast movements, something that one does not find in other Bach concertos that were originally for single-line instruments. Because the harpsichords are so self-sufficient and the accompanying ensemble is so incidental, this concerto is sometimes performed by two harpsichords without accompaniment. Some writers have even questioned whether the string parts may have been added later.
Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1062
This concerto for two harpsichords is a transcription of Bach's popular Concerto in D minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043. As with his other transcriptions of violin concertos, this work was transposed down a step to better suit the range of the harpsichord. Like those other transcriptions, it dates from the 1730's, when Bach provided harpsichord concertos for himself and his sons to play in the concerts of his Collegium Musicum.
Concerto for Three Harpsichords in D minor, BWV 1063
The Triple Concerto in D minor, a somewhat more severe sounding piece than Bach's other multiple concertos, is thought to be based on a lost original for three instruments, perhaps three violins, although there is no general agreement about the original instrumentation. Unlike Bach's other concertos for multiple soloists, this work does not treat the three harpsichords equally. The first harpsichord gets most of the solo and virtuosic passage work in the first two movements, although each of the three takes a solo turn in the last movement. The writing suggests that Bach may well have written the first part for himself to play and had his sons or students play the second and third parts. There are a number of accounts of this concerto being played on pianos in the nineteenth century, perhaps the most notable one having Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt and composer/conductor Ferdinand Hiller as the three soloists.
Concerto for Three Harpsichords in C Major, BWV 1064
Bach biographer Philipp Spitta called this magnificent Triple Concerto in C Major "one of Bach's most impressive instrumental compositions." It is thought to be based on a lost concerto in D major for three violins, and a reconstruction has been made of it in that form. For most of the first two movements, all three soloists play together in a dense, complex counterpoint, although in a few key passages in the opening movement, they dramatically come together to play in unison. In the third movement, on the other hand, each player gets to take a turn as soloist.
Concerto for Four Harpsichords in A minor, BWV 1065
This is the only concerto that Bach did not base on his own music. It is a transcription for four harpsichords of Vivaldi's Concerto in B minor for Four Violins, op. 3, no. 10. It dates from the early 1730's, when Bach began writing harpsichord concertos to perform with his Collegium Musicum, but he had gotten to know Vivaldi's concertos of opus 3 (L'estro armonico) decades earlier. Shortly after their publication in 1711, he transcribed a number of them, as well as other Italian concertos, for harpsichord alone. In transcribing this work of Vivaldi, Bach made various alterations to the original, including adding ornamentation, enriching inner voices in the accompaniment, and altering the rhythm of the theme in the third movement.
Boston Baroque Performances
Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060
November 11, 1988
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Margaret Irwin-Brandon, harpsichord
November 16, 1984
First and Second Church, Boston, MA
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Preethi de Silva, harpsichord
Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C Major, BWV 1061
September 28, 1984
First and Second Church, Boston, MA
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Frances Fitch, harpsichord
Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1062
May 3, 1985
First and Second Church, Boston, MA
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Frederick Renz, harpsichord
Concerto for Three Harpsichords in D minor, BWV 1063
May 3, 1985
First and Second Church, Boston, MA
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Frances Fitch, harpsichord
Frederick Renz, harpsichord
Concerto for Three Harpsichords in C Major, BWV 1064
November 16, 1984
First and Second Church, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Preethi de Silva, harpsichord
Frances Fitch, harpsichord
February 6, 1981
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
John Gibbons, harpsichord
Joseph Payne, harpsichord
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
Concerto for Four Harpsichords in A minor, BWV 1065
May 3, 1985
First and Second Church, Boston, MA
Soloists:
Martin Pearlman, harpsichord
James David Christie, harpsichord
Frances Fitch, harpsichord
Frederick Renz, harpsichord
Concerto in C minor for Oboe and Violin (reconstruction)
[See Concerto for Two Harpsichords, BWV 1060]
December 31, 2010 & January 1, 2011
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Marc Schachman, oboe
Christina Day Martinson, violin
January 1, 1997
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Marc Schachman, oboe
Daniel Stepner, violin
December 31, 1996
First Night, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Marc Schachman, oboe
Daniel Stepner, violin
April 7, 1979
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Stephen Hammer, oboe
Daniel Stepner, violin
October 16, 1977
Presque Isle, ME
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Kenneth Roth, oboe
Daniel Stepner, violin
October 15, 1977
Fort Kent, ME
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Kenneth Roth, oboe
Daniel Stepner, violin
February 4, 1977
Paine Hall, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Kenneth Roth, oboe
Daniel Stepner, violin
Concerto in D Major for Three Violins (reconstruction)
[See Concerto in C for Three Harpsichords, BWV 1064]
Dec. 31, 2019 & Jan. 1, 2020
Sanders Theater, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Christina Day Martinson, violin
Jesse Irons, violin
Sarah Darling, violin
December 31, 2004 & January 1, 2005
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Daniel Stepner, violin
Danielle Maddon, violin
Christina Day Martinson, violin
December 31, 1999 & January 1, 2000
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Daniel Stepner, violin
Julie Leven, violin
Danielle Maddon, violin
January 1, 1994
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Soloists:
Daniel Stepner, violin
Julie Leven, violin
Cleland Kinloch Earle, violin