The works BWV 1052–1057 were intended as a set of six, shown in the manuscript in Bach's traditional manner beginning with 'J.J.' (
Jesu juva, "Jesus, help") and ending with 'Finis. S. D. Gl.' (
Soli Deo Gloria). Aside from the
Brandenburg concertos, it is the only such collection of concertos in Bach's oeuvre, and it is the only set of concertos from his Leipzig years. The concerto BWV 1058 and fragment BWV 1059 are at the end of the score, but they are an earlier attempt at a set of works (as shown by an additional J.J.), which was, however, abandoned.
Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052 Scoring:
harpsichord solo,
violin I/II,
viola,
continuo (
cello,
violone) The earliest surviving manuscript of the concerto can be dated to 1734; it was made by Bach's son
Carl Philipp Emanuel and contained only the orchestral parts, the cembalo part being added later by an unknown copyist. This version is known as BWV 1052a. The definitive version BWV 1052 was recorded by Bach himself in the autograph manuscript of all eight harpsichord concertos BWV 1052–1058, made around 1738. In the second half of the 1720s, Bach had already written versions of all three movements of the concerto for two of his
cantatas with
obbligato organ as solo instrument: the first two movements for the sinfonia and first choral movement of
Wir müssen durch viel Trübsal in das Reich Gottes eingehen, BWV 146 (1726); and the last movement for the opening sinfonia of
Ich habe meine Zuversicht, BWV 188 (1728). In these cantata versions the orchestra was expanded by the addition of
oboes. Like the other harpsichord concertos, BWV 1052 has been widely believed to be a transcription of a lost concerto for another instrument. Beginning with
Wilhelm Rust and
Philipp Spitta, many scholars suggested that the original melody instrument was the violin, because of the many violinistic figurations in the solo part—string-crossing, open string techniques—all highly virtuosic. has speculated that the copies of the orchestral parts made in 1734 (BWV 1052a) might have been used for a performance of the concerto with Carl Philipp Emanuel as soloist. There have been several reconstructions of the putative violin concerto;
Ferdinand David made one in 1873;
Robert Reitz in 1917; and Wilfried Fischer prepared one for Volume VII/7 of the Neue Bach Ausgabe in 1970 based on BWV 1052. In 1976, in order to resolve playability problems in Fischer's reconstruction,
Werner Breig suggested amendments based on the obbligato organ part in the cantatas and BWV 1052a. In the twenty-first century, however, Bach scholarship has moved away from any consensus regarding a violin original. In 2016, for example, two leading Bach scholars,
Christoph Wolff and Gregory Butler, both published independently conducted research that led each to conclude that the original form of BWV 1052 was an organ concerto composed within the first few years of Bach's tenure in Leipzig. (Previous scholarship often held that Bach composed the original in Weimar or Cöthen.) Both relate the work to performances by Bach of concerted movements for organ and orchestra in Dresden and Leipzig. Wolff also details why the violinistic figuration in the harpsichord part does not demonstrate that it is a transcription from a previous violin part; for one thing, the "extended and extreme passagework" in the solo part "cannot be found in any of Bach's violin concertos"; for another, he points to other relevant Bach keyboard works that "display direct translations of characteristic violin figuration into idiomatic passagework for the keyboard." Also
Peter Wollny disagrees with the hypothesis that the works was originally a violin concerto. As
Werner Breig has shown, the first harpsichord concerto Bach entered into the autograph manuscript was BWV 1058, a straightforward adaptation of the
A minor violin concerto. He abandoned the next entry BWV 1059 after only a few bars to begin setting down BWV 1052 with a far more comprehensive approach to recomposing the original than merely adapting the part of the melody instrument. The concerto has similarities with Vivaldi's highly virtuosic
Grosso Mogul violin concerto, RV 208, which Bach had previously transcribed for solo organ in BWV 594. It is one of Bach's greatest concertos: in the words of it "conveys a sense of huge elemental power." This mood is created in the opening sections of the two outer movements. Both start in the manner of Vivaldi with unison writing in the ritornello sections—the last movement begins as follows: Bach then proceeds to juxtapose passages in the key of D minor with passages in A minor: in the first movement this concerns the first 27 bars; and in the last the first 41 bars. These somewhat abrupt changes in tonality convey the spirit of a more ancient modal type of music. In both movements the
A sections are fairly closely tied to the ritornello material which is interspersed with brief episodes for the harpsichord. The central
B sections of both movements are freely developed and highly virtuosic; they are filled with violinistic figurations including keyboard reworkings of
bariolage, a technique that relies on the use of the violin's open strings. The
B section in the first movement starts with repeated note bariolage figures: which, when they recur later, become increasingly virtuosic and eventually merge into brilliant filigree semidemiquaver figures—typical of the harpsichord—in the final extended cadenza-like episode before the concluding ritornello. Throughout the first movement the harpsichord part also has several episodes with "perfidia"—the same half bar semiquaver patterns repeated over a prolonged period. Both outer movements are in an
A–
B–
A′ form: the
A section of the first movement is in bars 1–62, the
B section starts with the bariolage passage and lasts from bar 62 to bar 171, the
A′ section lasts from bar 172 until the end; the
A section of the final movement is in bars 1–84, the
B section in bars 84–224, and the
A′ section from bar 224 until the end. In the first movement the central section is in the keys of D minor and E minor; in the last movement the keys are D minor and A minor. As in the opening sections, the shifts between the two minor tonalities are sudden and pronounced. In the first movement Bach creates another equally dramatic effect by interrupting the relentless minor-key passages with statements of the ritornello theme in major keys. Jones describes these moments of relief as providing "a sudden, unexpected shaft of light." The highly rhythmic thematic material of the solo harpsichord part in the third movement has similarities with the opening of the third Brandenburg Concerto. In both
B sections Bach adds unexpected features: in the first movement what should be the last ritornello is interrupted by a brief perfidia episode building up to the true concluding ritornello; similarly in the last movement, after five bars of orchestral ritornello marking the beginning of the
A′ section, the thematic material of the harpsichord introduces a freely developed 37-bar highly virtuosic episode culminating in a
fermata (for an extemporised
cadenza) before the concluding 12 bar ritornello. The slow movement, an Adagio in G minor and time, is built on a
ground bass which is played in unison by the whole orchestra and the harpsichord in the opening ritornello. It continues throughout the piece providing the foundations over which the solo harpsichord spins a florid and ornamented melodic line in four long episodes. The subdominant tonality of G minor also plays a role in the outer movements, in the bridging passages between the
B and
A′ sections. More generally has pointed out that the predominant keys in the outer movements centre around the open strings of the violin. Several hand copies of the concerto—the standard method of transmission—survive from the 18th century; for instance there are hand copies by
Johann Friedrich Agricola around 1740, by
Christoph Nichelmann and an unknown scribe in the early 1750s. Its first publication in print was in
1838 by the Kistner Publishing House. The performance history in the nineteenth century can be traced back to the circle of
Felix Mendelssohn. In the first decade of the 19th century the harpsichord virtuoso and great aunt of Mendelssohn,
Sara Levy, gave public performances of the concerto in
Berlin at the
Sing-Akademie, established in 1791 by the harpsichordist
Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch and subsequently run by Mendelssohn's teacher
Carl Friedrich Zelter. In 1824 Mendelssohn's sister
Fanny performed the concerto at the same venue. In 1835 Mendelssohn played the concerto in his first year as director of the
Gewandhaus in
Leipzig. There were further performances at the Gewandhaus in 1837, 1843 and 1863.
Ignaz Moscheles, a friend and teacher of Mendelssohn as well as a fellow devotee of Bach, gave the first performance of the concerto in London in 1836 at a benefit concert, adding one flute and two clarinets, bassoons and horns to the orchestra. In a letter to Mendelssohn, he disclosed that he intended the woodwind section to have the "same position in the Concerto as the organ in the performance of a Mass."
Robert Schumann subsequently described Moscheles' reorchestration as "very beautiful." The following year Moscheles performed the concerto at the
Academy of Ancient Music with Bach's original string orchestration. The
Musical World reported that Moscheles "elicited such unequivocal testimonies of delight, as the quiet circle of the Ancient Concert subscribers rarely indulge in." In 1838 the concerto was published in Leipzig.
Johannes Brahms later composed a
cadenza for the last movement of the concerto, which was published posthumously.
Concerto No. 2 in E major, BWV 1053 Scoring:
harpsichord solo,
violin I/II,
viola,
continuo (
cello,
violone) Several prominent scholars, Siegbert Rampe and Dominik Sackmann, Ulrich Siegele, and Wilfried Fischer have argued that Bach transcribed this concerto from a lost original for oboe or oboe d'amore (Rampe and Sackmann argued for a dating in 1718-19). An organ version exists, like BWV 1052, in a later transcription in his cantatas
Gott soll allein mein Herze haben, BWV 169 and
Ich geh und suche mit Verlangen, BWV 49. Bach changed his method of arrangement with this work, significantly altering the ripieno parts from the original concerto for the first time, limited much more to the
tutti sections. The lower string parts were much reduced in scope, allowing the harpsichord
bass to be more prominent, and the upper strings were likewise modified to allow the harpsichord to be at the forefront of the texture.
Concerto No. 3 in D major, BWV 1054 Scoring:
harpsichord solo,
violin I/II,
viola,
continuo (
cello,
violone) Length: c. 17 minutes The surviving
violin concerto in E major, BWV 1042 was the model for this work, which was transposed down a tone to allow the top note E6 to be reached as D6, the common top limit on harpsichords of the time. The opening movement is one of the rare Bach concerto first movements in da capo
A–B–A form. In 1845
Ignaz Moscheles performed the concerto in
London.
Concerto No. 4 in A major, BWV 1055 Scoring:
harpsichord solo,
violin I/II,
viola,
continuo (
cello,
violone) Length: c. 14 minutes While scholars agree that the concerto BWV 1055 is based on a lost original, different theories have been proposed for the instrument Bach used in that original. That it was an oboe d'amore was proposed in 1936 by
Donald Tovey, in 1957 by Ulrich Siegele, in 1975 by Wilfried Fischer, and in 2008 by Pieter Dirksen. Alternatively, Wilhelm Mohr argued in 1972 that the original was a concerto for viola d'amore. Most recently, however, in 2015 musicologist
Peter Wollny (the director of the
Bach Archive in Leipzig) argued that the "entire first movement" may instead "originate as a composition for unaccompanied keyboard instrument," since the movement "is conceived on the basis of the harpsichord as solo instrument, to such an extent that the strings are not even permitted to deploy a ritornello theme of their own, but from the first bar onwards assume their role as accompanists and thus step into the background to enable the solo part to develop unhindered; in the case of a melody instrument like the oboe such a design would be unthinkable." The middle movement was used in the soundtrack for
Woody Allen's 1986 film
Hannah and Her Sisters.
Concerto No. 6 in F major, BWV 1057 Scoring:
harpsichord solo, flauto dolce (
recorder) I/II,
violin I/II,
viola,
continuo (
cello,
violone) and leaps (below). Length: c. 17 minutes An
arrangement of
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, BWV 1049, which has a
concertino of violin and two recorders. Besides transposing, recorder parts have few modifications, except in the second movement in which most of their melodic function is transferred to the soloist. Bach wrote the harpsichord part as a combination of the violin material from the original concerto and a written out
continuo. The virtuosic violin passages from BWV 1049 are reworked into similarly challenging harpsichord material.
Concerto No. 7 in G minor, BWV 1058 Scoring:
harpsichord solo,
violin I/II,
viola,
continuo (
cello,
violone) Length: c. 14 minutes Probably Bach's first attempt at writing out a full harpsichord concerto, this is a transcription of the
violin concerto in A minor, BWV 1041, one whole tone lower to fit the harpsichord's range. It seems Bach was dissatisfied with this work, the most likely reason being that he did not alter the ripieno parts very much, so the harpsichord was swamped by the orchestra too much to be an effective solo instrument. Bach did not continue the intended set, which he had marked with 'J.J.' (for
Jesu juva, "Jesus, help") at the start of this work, as was his custom for a set of works. He wrote only the short fragment BWV 1059. In 1845 Ignaz Moscheles performed the concerto in London.
Concerto No. 8 in D minor, BWV 1059 (fragment) Scored for harpsichord, oboe and strings in the autograph manuscript, Bach abandoned this concerto after entering only nine bars. As with the other harpsichord concertos that have corresponding cantata movements (BWV 1052, 1053 and 1056), this fragment corresponds to the opening sinfonia of the cantata
Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35, for alto,
obbligato organ, oboes,
taille and strings. summarises the musicological literature discussing the possibility of a lost instrumental concerto on which the fragment and movements of the cantata might have been based. A reconstruction of an oboe concerto was made in 1983 by Arnold Mehl with the two sinfonias from BWV 35 as outer movements and the opening sinfonia of
BWV 156 as slow movement. ==Concertos for two harpsichords==