Baroque Period

Bach’s Viola da Gamba Sonata in G Major, BWV 1027: “The Loveliest, the Purest Idyll Conceivable”

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The popularity of the viola da gamba was already fading when J.S. Bach composed three sonatas for the instrument (BWV 1027–1029) in the late 1730s. A predecessor to the cello, the bowed, fretted string instrument evolved from the Spanish vihuela in the late 15th century, and flourished during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Evidence suggests that Bach wrote the Viola da Gamba Sonatas in Leipzig. During this period, in addition to his …

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Bach’s Violin Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052R: Virtuosity and Fire

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Bach was a master of adaptation and reuse. He made a habit of crafting harpsichord concerti out of previously written concerti for other instruments. Such is the case with the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, which is believed to be a transcription of a long-lost Bach violin concerto. The score is filled with passages which fit neatly into the violin as bariolage, “the alternation of notes on adjacent strings, one …

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Bach’s Sonata No. 2 in A Major for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1015: Canons of Joy

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With the Six Sonatas for violin and harpsichord (BWV 1014-1019), J.S. Bach spectacularly reimagined the Baroque trio sonata. Traditionally, the form, developed by composers such as Arcangelo Corelli, consisted of two solo instruments and continuo. The continuo involved a partially improvised accompaniment in which the keyboard player would be given the bass line and the harmonic “short hand” of figured bass notation. It was an arrangement which was not unlike the harmonic …

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Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A-flat Major, BWV 886: Lofty and Sonorous

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While recording the second book of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier as part of its All of Bach initiative, the Netherlands Bach Society chose twelve locations around the Dutch city of Utrecht. The Prelude and Fugue No. 17 in A-flat Major, BWV 886 was recorded on a top floor of the high-rise seat of Utrecht’s Provincial Council. Christine Schornsheim, the outstanding German harpsichordist who performs the entire Book II set, found the location, …

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Bach’s Flute Partita in A Minor, BWV 1013: Music Shrouded in Mystery

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J.S. Bach, who could create tantalizingly sophisticated music using the most economical means, famously wrote six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin, and six Suites for solo cello. Less well known is the single work Bach left behind for the solo flute. The four-movement suite which has come to be known as the Flute Partita in A minor, BWV 1013 originally was inscribed with the simple title, Solo pour la Flute traversiere. …

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Couperin’s Trio Sonata, “La Superbe”: Florence Malgoire and Les Dominos

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The trio sonata, which consists typically of two violins (or flutes, recorders, or oboes) and basso continuo, originated in Italy in the late sixteenth century. At first an instrumental adaptation of three-part vocal music, the form was refined and developed by Arcangelo Corelli. It is François Couperin (1668-1733), harpsichordist and court composer for Louis XIV, who is credited with introducing the trio sonata to the insular music world of France in the …

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Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor, RV 580: Dramatic Innovations

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The world of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was marked by dramatic innovation. In the Italian city of Cremona, just over a hundred miles from Vivaldi’s native Venice, instrument builders such as Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri were elevating the violin, tonally, to previously unimaginable heights. At the same time, Vivaldi, perhaps the world’s first rock star, captivated listeners with such blazing violinistic virtuosity that one witness described his playing as “terrifying.” Through techniques …

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