Bach was a grasp of adaptation and reuse. He made a behavior of crafting harpsichord concerti out of beforehand written concerti for different devices.
Such is the case with the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, which is believed to be a transcription of a long-lost Bach violin concerto. The rating is stuffed with passages which match neatly into the violin as bariolage, “the alternation of notes on adjoining strings, one in every of which is normally open,” to magically define chordal concord. For the violinist, Shunske Sato, a big a part of the enchantment of Bach’s music is the potentiality behind an excellent concept. He believes that Bach’s improvement and reuse of concepts challenges the which means of “unique.” Sato provides, “I’m pressured to concede that Bach was fairly outrageous.”
The reconstructed Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052R exhibits Bach at his most edgy and outrageous. Erupting as a pressure of nature, the Concerto is an exhilarating and harrowing joyride, stuffed with crackling virtuosity and hearth. Jarringly irregular phrases meet harsh, ferocious dissonances. Within the first motion (Allegro), following the preliminary assertion of the ritornello (a recurring tutti part), the solo violin launches right into a ghostly stream of working notes amid sighing figures and growling bass pedal tones within the orchestra. With the return of the ritornello (0:38), the traces start to interrupt into canonic counterpoint, with off-kilter jabs within the viola. Starting with a dismal, unison assertion of the bass line, the second motion (Adagio) evokes a way of haunting melancholy. At occasions, the violin cries out in anguish. Because the motion progresses, the music ventures ever deeper right into a dense, forbidding forest. The ultimate motion (Allegro) brings extra virtuosic fireworks and ghostly drama. The affect of Vivaldi is clear. A daring cadenza erupts within the solo violin, simply earlier than the ultimate ritornello.
This blazing efficiency, recorded on December 6, 2019, options Shunske Sato and the Netherlands Bach Society:
Recordings
- J.S. Bach: Violin Concerto in D minor, BWV 105R, Shunske Sato, Il Pomo d’Oro Amazon
Featured Picture: “Vesuvius from Portici” (1774), Joseph Wright of Derby