The concerto for two harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060, is a concerto for two harpsichords and string orchestra by Johann Sebastian Bach. It is likely to have originated in the second half of the 1730s as an arrangement of an earlier concerto, also in C minor, for oboe and violin. That conjectural original version of the concerto, which may have been composed in Bach's Köthen years (1717–1723), is lost, but has been reconstructed in several versions known as BWV 1060R.

History

While the extant 18th-century manuscripts present the concerto in a form for two harpsichords and strings, the assumption that it originated as concerto for violin and oboe has become widely accepted since the late 19th century.Work at Bach Digital website The precise date for this earlier concerto is unknown, but it is believed to have been in existence from the early 1720s. The version for two harpsichords likely originated in or around 1736. A broader estimate for the time of origin of the version for two harpsichords is 1735–1740.

Structure The concerto is scored for two harpsichords (cembalo concertato I and II), two violin parts (violin I and II), viola and basso continuo. The difference in texture and figuration of both solo instruments is clearest in the outer Allegro movements. In these movements, the melody lines of the cembalo II part are generally more lyrical and less agile than those of the cembalo I part. The Adagio middle movement, where the melody lines of both solo instruments imitate one another without distinction in texture and figuration, has been likened to the middle movement of Bach's double violin concerto, BWV 1043.

I. Allegro II. Adagio III. Allegro

Length: c. 14 minutes for the recording in

I. Allegro The theme with which the first Allegro movement opens is transformed in various ways, returning in its original form only at the end of the movement.

II. Adagio

The Adagio middle movement has a cantabile melody which is treated imitatively by both solo instruments, accompanied by the string orchestra. 18th-century manuscripts contain two versions for the accompaniment: in one version the string instruments play with bows (), in the other .

III. Allegro The of the last movement has an up-tempo -like theme, on which also the episodes for the soloists are almost entirely based.

Reception

In his early 19th-century Bach biography, Johann Nikolaus Forkel described the concerto as "very old", by which he probably meant he found its style antiquated. The concerto was published in 1848, edited by Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl.

In the 1874 preface to the Bach Gesellschaft edition of the concerto for two harpsichords, Wilhelm Rust had suggested that the original version of the concerto would have been for two violins. In 1886 Woldemar Voigt wrote that the original instrument for the part of the second harpsichord was more likely an oboe, and that the original of the concerto could almost certainly be identified with a lost concerto for oboe and violin mentioned in a 1764 Breitkopf catalogue.

Reconstructed versions

Max Schneider's reconstruction as a concerto for two violins in D minor was performed in 1920 at the Leipzig Bach Festival. According to Max Seiffert it makes more sense to keep the same key as the keyboard version, that is C minor, when reconstructing the concerto for violin and oboe soloists.

In his preface to the 1990 second edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV), Wolfgang Schmieder proposed to add a capital "R" to a BWV number to indicate a reconstructed version of a composition that is only extant in a later version, hence a reconstruction of a conjectured earlier version of the BWV 1060 concerto can be indicated as BWV 1060R. Schmieder used the 1060R catalogue number for a reconstruction in C minor, for oboe and violin soloists, in the 1990 version of the BWV.

Published reconstructions:

Recordings On CD recordings, BWV 1060R is often combined with Bach's violin concertos BWV 1041–1043.

+ Recordings of BWV 1060(R) Yr. Sol. k Performers Issued 1950 Ob•Vn c/R Tabuteau, Stern; Prades Festival Orchestra, Casals 1956 2Pno c Appleton, Field; Castle Hill Festival Orchestra, Brief CMD 318 1958 2Hps c Dart, Vaughan; Philomusica of London OL 50165 1960 2Hps c Veyron-Lacroix, Beckensteiner; , Paillard Erato LDE3124 1962 Ob•Vn d/R Goossens, Menuhin; Bath Festival Orchestra, Menuhin EMI 2536642 1962 2Hps c Leonhardt, ; Leonhardt Consort Teldec 6.35049 1963 Ob•Vn d/R , ; Münchener Bach-Orchester, Richter 2Hps c Richter, Bilgram; Münchener Bach-Orchester 1967 2Pno c Casadesus, R. & G.; Zurich Chamber Orchestra, de Stoutz 1970 Ob•Vn d/R Holliger, Grumiaux; New Philharmonia Orchestra, de Waart 1982 Ob•Vn c/R Killmer, Zukerman; Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Zukerman CBS MK37278 1985 2Pno c Eschenbach, Frantz; Hamburger Philharmoniker 1985 Ob•Vn c/R Boyd, Accardo; Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Accardo 1988 Ob•Vn d/R Black, Zimmermann; English Chamber Orchestra, Tate 1989 2Pno c/A Pekinel sisters; James CBS MK45579 1989 Ob•Vn c/R Goodwin, Wallfisch; The King's Consort, King Hyperion CDH55347 1992 2Hps c Schornsheim, ; Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum, Glaetzner Brilliant 99360/7 1996 2Vn d/R Manze, Podger; Academy of Ancient Music HMU 907155 1998 2Pno c/A Pekinel sisters; Jacques Loussier Trio Teldec 8573-80823-2 2000 Ob•Vn d/R Goritzki, Poppen; Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Rilling HC 92.131 2000 Ob•Vn d/R Kreeft, Heberlin; Netherlands Bach Ensemble, Koetsveld Brilliant 99360/9 2000 Ob•Vn d/R Mayer, Kennedy; Berliner Philharmoniker EMI 6290572 2003 2Pno c Pekinel sisters; Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Griffiths 2004 Ob•Vn c/R Löffler, Seiler; Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Mai HMC 901876 2008 Ob•Vn c/R Rubtsov, Fischer; Academy of St Martin in the Fields 2010 Tr•Vn c/A Boldoczki, Baráti; Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra Sony 88697724182 2011 Ob•Vn c/R Abberger, Lamon; Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Lamon AN 29878 2011 Ob•Vn c/R Torunczyk, ; Concerto Copenhagen, Mortensen 2011 2Hps c Mortensen, Pinnock; Concerto Copenhagen 2012 Hps•Vn c/A Dantone, Mullova; Accademia Bizantina Onyx 4114 2013 Ob•Vn c/R Puskunigis, Venslovaitė; St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, Brilliant 94991 2013 Ob•Vn c/R Ruiz, Huggett; Portland Baroque Orchestra AV 2324 2014 Ob•Vn c/R Leleux, Batiashvili; Kammerorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Szulc 2014 Ob•Vn c/R Bernardini, A. & ; Dunedin Consort, Butt Hyperion CKD519 2015 Ob•Vn c/R Barocksolisten München, Seel HC 16006 2015 Ob•Vn c/R Hamann, Zukerman; National Arts Centre Orchestra, Zukerman AN 28783 2017 2Hps c Hantaï, Häkkinen; Helsinki Baroque Orchestra AE-10087 2017 2Vn d/R Zimmermann, F. P. & S.; Berliner Barock Solisten HC 17046

The slow movement of Karl Richter's recording, with Hedwig Bilgram and the Münchener Bach-Orchester, also features in the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975).

References

Sources

Volume III

External links