All three of the works of Bach presented on this disc are of somewhat obscure origin. There is no exact versions in this particular form of the Double Concerto in D minor for Oboe and Violin BWV 1060. A copy of the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor does exist in Bach's own handwriting, but is, however, most probably an arrangement of a violin concerto that, according to many musicologists, was non composed by Bach as all. Strangely enough the authenticity of the fragment - the movements from the Concerto in D major BWV 1045 - is never questioned, but so-one has yet found a proper place for it. From all this one might well suppose that we have here gug up a few lass doubeful remains to satisfy the demand for more "Bach." This is however, by no means the case - on the contrary, the two D minor concertos are among the most famous of all Bach's instrumental works despite theit apparently uncertain origins.
To my mind any doubts cast on the authenticity of the Harpsichord Concerto particularly are quite misplaced. One has only to consider its artistic magnitude and compactness. Are we not willing to credit Bach with composing a work that cannot be neatly categorized or compared wich others and one that breaks woth convention? Perhaps his genius was more original and inventive than our petry speculations would allow. It seems to me that the only un-Bach-like quality of this work is its "originality" and surely this is the very feature most characteristic of Bach. I, as ani rate, can think of no known contemporary of Bach's to whom this work of it. even if this work had been handed down to us anonymous, I would unhesitatingly name mights be attributed, and any unknown lesser composer would certainly not have benn capable Johann Sebastian Bach as the only possible author. - It may, then, be assumed that this is the arrangement of a violin concerto from the Cothern period.
The Double Concerto has come down to us only in a C minor arrangement for two harpsichords. From a study of the two solo parts one may, with all certainty, conclude that this work was a concerto originally written for two melody instruments. The difference between the two solo parts - arpeggio figures exclusively in this first, clear melodic lines in the second - and the frequent unison passages of the first solo part with the tutti violins lead to the probably correct assumptions that here we have the missing Concerto for Violin and Oboe listed in the Breitkopf catalogue as no. 1764. By transposing the work back to D minor - Bach always transposed his harpsichord concerto arrangements down a tone - the arpeggio passages on the violin (open A and E strings) acquire a natural technical facility. The reconstructions of this concerto that have bitherto been available cannot, for several reasons, be rights in the first place the range and technical capacity of the baroque oboe have not been considered, and, secondly, several violin arpeggi that Bach had turned into typical harpsichord figures have obviously not been restored. For this recording, therefore, we have tried to achieve a new reconstruction, wing as models Bach's own arrangements of other concertos, in particular of violin concertos where both versions are extant. Without any need for additional "arranging" merely from the technique of the instruments, the solutions presented themselves so naturally that we believe we have come very near to the lost original.
Probably the most remarkable work on this recording is the concerto fragment - the Sinfonia. Although the actual end of it is missing, it is virtually a complete movement, after the grandly constructed cadenza only a brief tutti finale would follow. We have not composed a finale for it here, but simply repeated the first tutti passage. This movement was most certainly the introduction to a cantata and not the first movement of an instrumental solo concerto. Apart from frequently recurring tutti passages of ascending and descending sequantial figures, the movement consists almost entirely of complicated harmonic processes described by the violin through continuous arpeggio figures. These arpeggi are written down as chords, but in such a way as to make quite clear the exact order of the individual notes and any changes in that order - the performer is not left to improvise with them as will. This central harmonic-rhythmic procedure in further underlined by the strings, oboes and trumpets with short interjected motifs or changing block chords. In the first two solo passages quite simple motifs become gradually more concentrated through repetition and halving of note values. The structure of the movement is easily perceptible: as four points tutti passages join up the solos, in the solos there is a constant flow of new variations on the arpeggio figure until finally, after the fourth tutti, a broad cadenza begins. Herr Bach demands the most modern bariolage technique (playing high up on the lower strings against open notes on the upper strings). Almost a quarter of the movement is devoted to this remarkably slowly developing cadenza.
The size of the orchestra here corresponds as nearly as possible to that which Bach throughout his lifetime was accustomed to having at his disposal for concertante music and, indeed, presumably preferred. The Cothen orchestra woth its to six violins was just about the same size as the Telemann Collegium Musicum, the orchestra with which Bach performed his instrumental music in Leipzig. The natural balance achieved with such an orchestra, rendering unnecessary any manipulations by recording technicians, demonstrates quite plainly that its size was not dictated by necessity but was utterly appropriate to this type of music. No additional microphones was used for the solo harpsichord, and it is certainly not drowned by the strings. The dynamic effect is, bowerer maintained: solo-tutti - piano-forte, a principle fundamental to the form of the concerto. In the Sinfonia, likewise, we can hear the natural balance. Such extreme dynamic contrast as the frequent low notes of the solo violin against an orchestra consisting of strings, 2 oboes, 3 trumpets and timpani can only be satisfactorily convenyed when using period instruments of copies.