Johann Sebastian Bach:
Concerto for 3 Violins & Orchestra, BWV 1064r
Concerto for Oboe, Violin & Orchestra, BWV 1060r
Concerto for Organ, BWV 595
Concerto for Organ, BWV 592
Concerto for 2 Violins, BWV 1043

Johann Gottfried Walther:
Concerto for Organ

Prinz Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar:
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, BWV 983

The continuation of the celebrated recording series with the Thüringer Bach Collegium provides remarkable insights into Bach’s adaptation of the Italian concerto style: the concertos for one to three solo instruments by the young Bach are sparkling disputes about the best musical argument – musical debating culture at the highest level. Nobody can escape the pull of this gripping contest of virtuosos.

It was a momentous encounter: around 1714, the Weimar court organist Johann Sebastian Bach came across Antonio Vivaldi’s opus 3 L’Estro armonico, hot off the press, and soon nothing would be the same for him musically. Bach eagerly appropriated the Venetian Red Priest’s modern concerto style. And true to the meaning of the word “concertare”, which in Italian means “to unite”, but in Latin means “to argue” or “to fight”, Bach rapidly entered into a competition, first with his Italian models and then with himself.

At the outset, he arranged Vivaldi’s violin concertos for his (main) instrument, the organ. But then he transferred Vivaldi’s principles into his own instrumental concerto style. The results were his immortal Köthen concertos for one to three solo instruments and orchestra, blending the concerto principle of structural tutti ritornellos and interspersed imaginative solo episodes with Bach’s unique polyphonic style – highly virtuosic works in which all participating instruments connect with one another at eye level, and also enter into fierce competition with each other.

---

Recording: Oberkirche Arnstadt, Oktober 5-8, 2020.