Discovering music on Vivaldi and Bach
Feb. 1st, 2010 09:48 pmYesterdays Discovering Music featured a particularly charming trio of related baroque concerti. Firstly, from Antonio Vivaldi's l'estro armonico, the double concerto in A minor, R.522:
This was immediately followed by Johann Sebastian Bach's transcription of the concerto, BWV 593, which for all its similarities contains a number of distinctively Bachian touches:
Followed by the German Master's own superlative double concerto, BWV 1043, which although written much later than the Vivaldi transcription contains definite similarities:
I found the whole thing particularly enlightening, especially when it came to the similarities and differences between the three pieces. I also particularly liked the point that Stephen Johnson made about the way that Bach reverses the ripieno and concertino roles in the finale, making the soloists act as the accompaniment — not something I'd really noticed before.
A sheer delight.
This was immediately followed by Johann Sebastian Bach's transcription of the concerto, BWV 593, which for all its similarities contains a number of distinctively Bachian touches:
Followed by the German Master's own superlative double concerto, BWV 1043, which although written much later than the Vivaldi transcription contains definite similarities:
I found the whole thing particularly enlightening, especially when it came to the similarities and differences between the three pieces. I also particularly liked the point that Stephen Johnson made about the way that Bach reverses the ripieno and concertino roles in the finale, making the soloists act as the accompaniment — not something I'd really noticed before.
A sheer delight.