Apart from his orchestral keyboard concertos and his solo organ concertos, Johann Sebastian Bach composed keyboard concertos for unaccompanied harpsichord: Most of his Weimar concerto transcriptions, over twenty arrangements of Italian and Italianate orchestral concertos which he produced around 1713–1714 when he was employed in Weimar, were written for solo harpsichord (BWV 592a and 972–987). Two decades later, some ten years after he had become in Leipzig, he wrote a concerto for two harpsichords, BWV 1061a, which was later orchestrated as BWV 1061. The Italian Concerto, BWV 971, was published in 1735 as part of his Clavier-Übung II.
Weimar concerto transcriptions
In his Weimar period, Johann Sebastian Bach transcribed Italian and Italianate concertos. Most, if not all, of the concerto transcriptions for unaccompanied harpsichord were realised from July 1713 to July 1714. Most of these transcriptions were based on concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Other models for the transcriptions included concertos by Alessandro Marcello, Benedetto Marcello, Georg Philipp Telemann and Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.
+ Weimar concerto transcriptions (harpsichord) BWV Key Model 592a G major Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar: ; BWV 592 972 D major Vivaldi, Op. 3 No. 9: Violin Concerto in D major, RV 230 972a D major Vivaldi, Op. 3 No. 9: Violin Concerto in D major, RV 230 973 G major Vivaldi, RV 299: Violin Concerto in G major (published as Op. 7 No. 8) 974 D minor Marcello, A.: Oboe Concerto in D minor 975 G minor Vivaldi, RV 316 (variant RV 316a, Violin Concerto in G minor, published as Op. 4 No. 6) 976 C major Vivaldi, Op. 3 No. 12: Violin Concerto in E major, RV 265 977 C major 978 F major Vivaldi, Op. 3 No. 3: Violin Concerto in G major, RV 310 979 B minor Vivaldi, RV 813: Violin Concerto in D minor (formerly RV Anh. 10 attributed to Torelli) 980 G major Vivaldi, RV 383: Violin Concerto in B-flat major, (variant RV 383a published as Op. 4 No. 1) 981 C minor Marcello, B.: Concerto Op. 1 No. 2 982 Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar: Concerto Op. 1 No. 1 983 G minor 984 C major Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar: and possibly BWV 595 985 G minor Telemann: 986 G major 987 D minor Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar: Concerto Op. 1 No. 4
Concerto in G major, BWV 592a
After by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, and organ version BWV 592.
There are three movements:
Concerto in D major, BWV 972
After Violin Concerto in D major Op. 3 No. 9 (RV 230) by Antonio Vivaldi. There is an earlier version of this arrangement, BWV 972a.
There are three movements:
Concerto in G major, BWV 973
After Violin Concerto in G major, RV 299, by Antonio Vivaldi (later version published as Op. 7 No. 8).
There are three movements:
Concerto in D minor, BWV 974
After Oboe Concerto in D minor by Alessandro Marcello.
There are three movements:
Concerto in G minor, BWV 975
After Violin Concerto in G minor, RV 316, by Antonio Vivaldi (variant RV 316a, published as Op. 4 No. 6).
There are three movements:
Concerto in C major, BWV 976
After Violin Concerto in E major Op. 3 No. 12 (RV 265) by Antonio Vivaldi.
There are three movements:
Concerto in C major, BWV 977 After an unidentified model.
There are three movements:
Concerto in F major, BWV 978
After Violin Concerto in G major Op. 3 No. 3 (RV 310) by Antonio Vivaldi.
There are three movements:
Concerto in B minor, BWV 979 After Violin Concerto in D minor, RV 813, by Antonio Vivaldi (formerly RV Anh. 10 attributed to Torelli).
There are five movements:
Concerto in G major, BWV 980
After Violin Concerto in B-flat major, RV 383 by Antonio Vivaldi (variant RV 383a published as Op. 4 No. 1).
There are three movements:
Concerto in C minor, BWV 981 After Violin Concerto in C minor Op. 1 No. 2 by Benedetto Marcello.
There are four movements:
Concerto in B-flat major, BWV 982
After Violin Concerto in B-flat major Op. 1 No. 1 by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.
There are four movements:
Concerto in G minor, BWV 983 After an unidentified model.
There are three movements:
Concerto in C major, BWV 984
After the Violin Concerto in C major by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe–Weimar (like BWV 595).
There are three movements:
Concerto in G minor, BWV 985 After the , by Georg Philipp Telemann.
There are three movements:
Concerto in G major, BWV 986 After an unidentified model.
There are three movements:
Concerto in D minor, BWV 987
After Concerto Op. 1 No. 4 by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.
There are four movements:
Original compositions Bach composed unaccompanied keyboard concertos for one and two harpsichords.
Italian Concerto included in Clavier-Übung II
Bach's Italian Concerto, BWV 971, was published in 1735, as first of two compositions included in Clavier-Übung II. An early version of the concerto's first movement survives in an 18th-century copy.Beißwenger 2006
Early version of Concerto for two harpsichords, BWV 1061
BWV 1061a, a concerto for two harpsichords without accompaniment, is Bach's original version of the Concerto for two harpsichords and strings, BWV 1061.
Doubtful works Several concertos for unaccompanied harpsichord are listed as doubtful in Anhang II of the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis:, pp. 459–466 BWV 909 – Concerto and Fugue in C minor BWV Anh. 151 – Concerto in C major BWV Anh. 152 – Concerto in G major
Discography
BWV 592a and 972–987 (1999). Brilliant Classics 99372/3 and /4.
Italian Concerto
BWV 909 (1986). Ricercar RIC 038014 Christiane Wuyts (1988). Brilliant Classics 99362/9.
BWV 1061a Guillermo Brachetta and (2016). Resonus RES 10189.
Further reading Introduction (in German and English) • Commentary (English translation—commentary in paperback original is in German)
]
Sarah Elizabeth Hanks. The German Unaccompanied Keyboard Concerto in the Early 18th Century: Including Works of Walther, Bach, and Their Contemporaries. University of Iowa, 1972 (dissertation).
Karl Heller. "Zur Stellung des Concerto C-Dur für zwei Cembali BWV 1061 in Bachs Konzert-Œuvre", pp. 241–251 in Bericht über die Wissenschaftliche Konferenz zum V. Internationalen Bachfest der DDR in Verbindung mit dem 60. Bachfest der Neuen Bach-Gesellschaft (1985), edited by Winfried Hoffmann and Armin Schneiderheinze. Leipzig, 1988.
(a reprint of a 1985 publication in Early Music)
Manuscripts 25448 MSM at Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles (): Fascicles 3 (BWV 972a) and 4 (BWV 981) at Bach Digital D-DS Mus. ms. 66 at (BWV 974; ; D-DS Mus. ms. 66 at Bach Digital) D-LEb Peters Ms. 8 at /Bach Archive: Fascicles 14 (BWV 971), 28 (BWV 984) and 29 (BWV 981) at Bach Digital D-LEm Poel. mus. Ms. 29 at (BWV 592a, 973 and 983–4; D-LEm Poel. mus. Ms. 29 at Bach Digital) Mus.ms. Bach P 280 at Berlin State Library (BWV 592 and 973–982; ; D-B Mus. ms. Bach P 280 at Bach Digital) Mus.ms. Bach P 801 (28) at Berlin State Library ("Concerto di Marcello", BWV 981; ; D-B Mus. ms. Bach P 801, Fascicle 28 at Bach Digital) Mus.ms. Bach P 804 at Berlin State Library (): Fascicles 4 (BWV 974), 15 (BWV 976), 28 (BWV 985), 34 (BWV 987), 35 (BWV 983), 46 (BWV 986), 52 (BWV 984), 54 (BWV 973), 55 (BWV 972) and 56 (BWV 977) at Bach Digital Mus.ms. Bach St 139, Fascicle 1 at Berlin State Library (autograph parts of BWV 1061a; D-B Mus. ms. Bach St 139, Faszikel 1 at Bach Digital)
References
Sources Kirsten Beißwenger. "An early version of the first movement of the Italian Concerto BWV 971 from the Scholz collection?" pp. 1–19 in Bach Studies 2 edited by Daniel R. Melamed. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
, Updates (2016)
External links At IMSLP website: BWV 592a: Violin Concerto in G major (Johann Ernst Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar) Italienisches Konzert, BWV 971 (Bach, Johann Sebastian) 16 Konzerte nach verschiedenen Meistern, BWV 972–987 (Bach, Johann Sebastian), Violin Concerto in D major, RV 230 (Vivaldi, Antonio), Violin Concerto in G major, RV 299 (Vivaldi, Antonio), Oboe Concerto in D minor, S.Z799 (Marcello, Alessandro), Violin Concerto in G minor, RV 316a (Vivaldi, Antonio), Violin Concerto in E major, RV 265 (Vivaldi, Antonio), Violin Concerto in G major, RV 310 (Vivaldi, Antonio), Violin Concerto in B-flat major, RV 383a (Vivaldi, Antonio), Violin Concerto in C major (Johann Ernst Prinz von Sachsen-Weimar) and Violin Concerto, TWV 51:g1 (Telemann, Georg Philipp) 12 Concerti Grossi, Op.1 (Marcello, Benedetto), L'estro armonico, Op.3 (Vivaldi, Antonio), La stravaganza, Op.4 (Vivaldi, Antonio), 12 Concerti, Op.7 (Vivaldi, Antonio) and 12 Concerti a 5 (Various) Concerto for 2 Harpsichords in C major, BWV 1061 (Bach, Johann Sebastian)