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ABOUT THE PROGRAM PETER HALSTEAD
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685–1750)
Harpsichord Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056
Bach published his absolutely gorgeous keyboard con- certos the same year as Handel did his organ concertos. Before this, no one had included a keyboard soloist in such purely orchestral music. The weak early harpsichord played along with the string group and could only be heard when everyone else stopped playing. When everyone played together, the harpsichord became just another voice, but not the dominant one. Today, although the piano plays the same theme as Bach’s orchestra much of the time, it is hard to imagine not having this transcendent and joyous con- tinuo in the forefront of the assembled forces. This evening each musician will be equal in our small Baroque hall, and each instrument will be a soloist. We expect the resulting dance will be an even-voiced trellis of modern teamwork combined with the equality produced by ancient acoustics. (The dimensions of the Olivier Hall are the same as those of the Parthenon and the halls Bach used.)
The basso continuo or figured bass of the harpsichord is often used as harmonic fill and rhythmic support for more impressive orchestral sonorities. But here the keyboard clearly initiates and motivates the other instruments, using the “sprung rhythm” of the turn, or ornament, to displace and thus distinguish itself from the metronomic moto perpetuo of the strings.
Despite its clear individuality, Bach cobbled together
the rich keyboard part from the violins and the original harpsichord continuo (the simple chordal accompaniment) of the original violin concerto, upon which this piece is based. Risen from the ashes of its Baroque background comes the modern world of the bravura piano concerto, waistcoats flying.
The second movement has the same suspended, breathless summer night timelessness as the “Air on the G String” from the Orchestral Suite No. 3. It also closely resembles the opening Andante of the Telemann Flute Concerto in G Major.
Trills are used to sustain a note which could simply be held by a string instrument, a woodwind, or an organ. Piano notes are evanescent and disappear as soon as they are registered on the keys, a transience which has en passant led to its poignant immortality.
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Harpsichord Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 1052
Bach had lost this concerto in Köthen or Weimar, but had written it down again by 1728. It was originally a violin concerto. He had also used it as the organ obbligato for Cantatas in 1726 and 1728. Repurposing (or musical re- gifting), in which Telemann and Mozart also specialized, is the key to being prolific.
Welcome to D Minor Week at Tippet Rise.
D minor is the key of the Phantom of the Opera (Bach’s Toccata in D Minor being the score to Lon Chaney’s movie of that name). It is the key of Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto. It is the key of Bach’s monumental Harpsi- chord Concerto No. 1, and the key of Mozart’s great Piano Concerto No. 20.
The Bach piece was obviously the inspiration for the Mozart, and this is possibly why Anne-Marie has chosen to perform it out of order just before the Mozart concerto. Bach had been in turn inspired to write the D-minor Concerto by Vivaldi’s highly virtuosic Grosso Mogul violin concerto, RV 208.
252 The Music at Tippet Rise