Bach’s Keyboard ConcertosBY K E V I N M C B R I E N

J. S. Bach’s keyboard music holds a singular place within the composer’s monumental output. “No other genre occupied Bach so consistently and intensively from the beginning of his career to the end,” notes musicologist Christoph Wolff. “Unlike the vocal music and the chamber and orchestral works, Bach’s keyboard output covers his entire creative life.” Indeed, Bach’s music for keyboard is a remarkable contribution to the literature not just in terms of the sheer amount of material he produced, but also in the depth and invention each work offers listeners, performers, and scholars.

In particular, the keyboard concertos offer a glimpse into Bach’s exceptional treatment of both solo and ensemble writing. As is the case with the concertos for two, three, and four keyboards, these works also present a dazzling exercise in the handling of multiple solo instruments at once.

Family Group at a Harpsichord, 1739 (oil on canvas) by Cornelis Troost. Rijksmuseum Twenthe.

With special thanks to The Simms/Mann Family Foundation, Victoria and Ronald Simms

The Aspen Music Festival and School uses Steinway and Boston pianos, designed by Steinway & Sons; Steinway & Sons is represented in Colorado exclusively by Schmitt Music.

Bach Project: Arie Vardi, piano and conductorMaxim Lando, piano Ray Ushikubo, piano Harmony Zhu, piano Festival Ensemble

Robert Spano, Music DirectorAlan Fletcher, President and CEO

Saturday, July 20, 2019 8 pm

Harris Concert Hall

J. S. Bach Concerto for Piano in F minor, BWV 1056 (c. 1738–39) 10' (1685 –1750) [Allegro] Largo Presto Ray Ushikubo, piano Maxim Lando, piano Harmony Zhu, piano

Concerto No. 2 for Two Pianos in C major, BWV 1061 (1727–1736) 17' [Allegro] Adagio ovvero largo Fuga Maxim Lando, piano Harmony Zhu, piano

I N T E R M I S S I O N

Concerto for Three Pianos in C major, BWV 1064 (1733) 18' [Allegro] Adagio Allegro Ray Ushikubo, piano Harmony Zhu, piano Maxim Lando, piano

Concerto for Four Pianos in A minor, BWV 1065 (c. 1730) 10' [Allegro] Largo Allegro Harmony Zhu, piano Maxim Lando, piano Ray Ushikubo, piano Arie Vardi, conductor and piano

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Drawing for a Harpsichord Top, c. eighteenth century (pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, over graphite). Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949.

overall boisterous work. Interestingly, some scholars have noted that this movement and others throughout the Concerto demonstrate how the orchestra could hypothetically be excised and the work would be largely unaf-fected. One can be grateful, though, for the ensemble’s presence, which gives the piece extra vivacity, especially in the final move-ment. A perky Fugue closes the Concerto, starting with the solo pianos before the rest of the orchestra adds to the flurry of contra-puntal activity.

Though still in C major, the Concerto for Three Pianos, BWV 1064 (also a possible transcription of a concerto for three violins) opens with a slightly more elegant character. The pianos also act as a solitary unit through-out the entire work, creating a fuller texture and a striking effect when the orchestra cuts back to reveal the soloists, a characteristic prevalent in the opening Allegro. Like the

previous Concerto, a stark contrast is cre-ated by setting the middle movement in the relative key of A minor, though the orches-tra remains present, giving the music a less reclusive quality. The final Allegro lifts the spirits of the ensemble and creatively spot-lights a solo moment for each pianist: the first piano performs simpler figurations with orchestra accompaniment while the second and third each tumble through a virtuosic cascade of sixteenth notes. (There is evidence that Bach performed some of his concertos for multiple keyboards with his sons, and it’s likely that he tailored the solo parts to their individual skill levels.)

For all of his individuality, Bach was a huge admirer of Vivaldi, and studied and arranged a number of “the Red Priest’s” works in the 1700s. One of the most notable results was Bach’s Concerto for Four Pia-nos in A minor, BWV 1065, a transcription

of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins (Opus 3, no. 10) from the published collection L’estro armonico. Bach’s Concerto is not a mere copy-and-paste job, though. In the liner notes for Gustav Leonhardt’s record-ing of Bach’s harpsichord concertos, musi-cologist Ludwig Finscher describes how Bach enriched the inner harmonic texture of Vivaldi’s original and reworked figura-tions intended for violin “without touching the form and the character of the work and without dispensing with the easily grasped clarity of its structure and the elemen-tary power of its thematic invention.” The final result—comprising a stately opening movement, sparkling Largo, and buoyant Allegro—showcases Vivaldi’s structural inge-nuity through the lens of Bach’s contrapuntal prowess, a “tip of the hat” from one master of the instrumental concerto to another. —© KEVIN MCBRIEN

The four concertos on tonight’s program—the F minor Concerto for a single keyboard (BWV 1056), the C major for two (BWV 1061), the C major for three (BWV 1064), and the A minor for four (BWV 1065)—were all composed between 1727 and 1739, dur-ing Bach’s time in Leipzig. By the year 1729, Bach had been kantor at the city’s St. Thomas Church for six years, a prestigious position in which he provided weekly service music for Leipzig’s four principal churches. That same year, though, Bach was granted another nota-ble appointment—director of Leipzig’s col-legium musicum. This ensemble had been founded by his friend and colleague Georg Philipp Telemann in 1702 and comprised a volunteer group of both professional and stu-dent musicians who presented weekly con-certs for the public. The collegium performed at several venues throughout the city including Café Zimmermann, a preeminent coffeehouse located on Katharinenstraße (Catherine Street) in an affluent part of the city. This appointment offered Bach ample opportunity to compose and oversee regular performances of secular works—including his charming Coffee Can-tata (BWV 211) and likely, the keyboard con-certos—a welcome break from his rewarding, yet exhausting job at St. Thomas.

Though performed on modern pianos in tonight’s performance, these concertos were originally intended for the harpsichord, still the primary keyboard instrument in Bach’s day. Early pianos did exist in the 1730s—the first are attributed to the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1700—but Bach was not pleased with the sound of the instrument after being presented versions built by the organ manufacturer Gottfried Silbermann. (He apparently changed his mind near the end of his life, once improve-ments had been made.) At the end of the day, though, Bach preferred the tactile clarity of the harpsichord and reportedly led many of his church ensembles from the instrument.

Regardless, to hear Bach’s works performed on modern-day pianos adds a whole new dimension to this already-exquisite music; one can surmise that Bach would be aston-ished, if not fully impressed, by the results.

Bach’s Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056 for solo keyboard and strings is likely a rear-rangement of a lost violin concerto, though the musical material is still well suited for keyboard writing. It’s also an attractively compact work, lasting about ten minutes over the course of three movements. The opening Allegro presents a weighty, pul-sating figure in the orchestra, which the piano elaborates in soloistic turns. An idyl-lic Largo follows, which has the piano sing a long-breathed melody over simple, pizzicato accompaniment. This particular movement was actually adapted from a work composed in the early 1700s by Telemann—specifically, the opening of his Flute Concerto in G major. (Bach had also used this same music in his 1729 cantata Ich steh mit einem Fuß in Grabe, BWV 156.) Though baffling to our modern-day awareness of copyright and intellectual property laws, back then, situations like this often stemmed from admiration or a desire to pay homage to the original author rather than a deceitful attempt at plagiarism. Never-theless, the final movement of the Concerto returns to Bach, presenting a lilting, yet shad-owy Presto that passes the musical conversa-tion between the soloist and the orchestra.

A completely different mood is established right at the outset of the Second Concerto for Two Pianos, BWV 1061, which is set in blazing C major. The addition of a second keyboard instrument allows for spirited interplay between the solo instruments and ensemble, a trait which is fully on display in the opening Allegro. The second movement (marked Adagio ovvero largo) is a languid siciliano scored for the soloists alone, cre-ating a strikingly reflective moment in this

This 1720 engraving by Johann Georg Schreiber shows part of the Katharinenstraße in Leipzig. The center building is Café Zimmermann, a coffeehouse where many of Bach’s secular works—which likely included his keyboard concertos—were performed between 1729 and 1741.

. . . to hear Bach’s works performed on modern-day pianos adds a whole new dimension to this already-exquisite music . . .

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