Baroque Period

Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046: Festive Horn Calls

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Festive horn calls ring out from the opening measures of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major. Rousing and raucous, this is joyful music of the hunt. As the Netherlands Bach Society observes, On turning over the impressive title page of the ‘Brandenburg’ Concertos, two hunting horns immediately blare through the rest of the music – calling everyone to gather together! Bach deliberately lets the persistent horns disturb his music. …

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Shunske Sato Plays Vivaldi: “Autumn” from “The Four Seasons”

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Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Le quattro stagioni) is one of the earliest and most iconic examples of programmatic music. Vivaldi composed the collection of four violin concerti, each depicting a season of the year, during his tenure as music director at the court chapel of Mantua. Together with eight additional concerti, the works were published in Amsterdam in 1725 under the enticing title, Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventione (“The Contest Between Harmony and …

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Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001: James Ehnes at Home

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J.S. Bach’s six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin are technical and musical marvels. They transform the violin, an instrument usually associated with a single melodic line, into a vehicle of dazzling polyphony. The collection begins with the purity and resonance of G minor, a key which is centered on the open fifths of the violin’s lowest two strings. The Adagio which opens the Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV …

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Handel’s Sinfonia in B-flat Major, HWV 339: Ensemble Diderot

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The Sinfonia in B-flat Major, HWV 339 is music of the young George Frideric Handel. It was probably composed in Hamburg between 1704 and 1706, in the years before Handel’s move to London. No autograph manuscript exists, and it remained unpublished until 1979. The Sinfonia unfolds in three movements (fast-slow-fast). As a composer, Handel was skillful at borrowing and adapting existing music. The Sinfonia’s opening movement (Allegro) was taken from the composer’s …

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Bach’s Sonata No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1005, Largo: Christian Tetzlaff

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When it comes to J.S. Bach’s six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (BWV 1001-1006), we are never done learning. Once you begin to play and study this timeless, awe-inspiring music, new details reveal themselves continuously, in unending layers. An intrinsic part of the violin repertoire, the collection includes Baroque dances, three fugues, and a monumental chaconne. Bach gave multi-voice counterpoint to an instrument that is primarily associated with single melodic lines. …

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Bach’s Cantata, BWV 140, “Wachet auf”: Boundless Imagination

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J.S. Bach’s Cantata, BWV 140, Wachet auf (“Sleepers Awake”) has been called “a cantata without weakness, without a dull bar, technically, emotionally and spiritually of the highest order, its sheer perfection and boundless imagination rouse one’s wonder time and time again.” (William G. Whittaker) German musicologist Alfred Dürr described it as an expression of Christian mysticism in art, with the uniting of “earthly happiness in love and heavenly bliss.” Bach composed this …

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Osvaldo Golijov’s “Tenebrae”: Melismatic Echoes of Couperin

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In Western Christianity, Tenebrae occurs in the final days of the Holy Week, and commemorates the sufferings and death of Christ. It involves the gradual extinguishing of candles, leading to a void of darkness. Metaphorical darkness, light, and space formed the inspiration for Tenebrae, a 2002 chamber work by Argentine composer, Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960). (The piece was originally scored for soprano, clarinet, and string quartet, and later adapted for strings alone). …

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