CHANGCA - BACH PF CTOS VOL 2 [CD]

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750)Piano (Clavier Concerto) No.4 in A Major, BWV 1055 Piano (Clavier Concerto) No.5 in F Minor, BWV 1056 Piano (Clavier Concerto) in F Major, BWV 1057 Piano (Clavier Concerto) in G Major, BWV 1058 The career of Johann Sebastian Bach, the most illustrious of aprolific musical family, falls neatly into three unequal parts. Born in 1685 in Eisenach,from the age of ten Bach lived and studied music with his eider brother in Ohrdruf, afterthe death of both his parents. After a series of appointments as organist and briefly as acourt musician, he became, in 1708, court organist and chamber musician to Duke WilhelmErnst of Weimar, the eider of the two brothers who jointly ruled the duchy. In 1714 he waspromoted to the position of Konzertmeister to the Duke, but in 1717, after a brief periodof imprisonment for his temerity in seeking to leave the Duke's service, he abandonedWeimar to become Court Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen, a position heheld unti11723. From then until his death in 1750 he lived in Leipzig, where he wasThomaskantor, with responsibility for the music of the five principal city churches, in1729 assuming direction of the university collegium musicum, founded by Telemann in 1702.At Weimar Bach had been principally employed as an organist,and his compositions of the period include a considerable amount written for theinstrument on which he was recognised as a virtuoso performer. At Cothen, where Pietisttraditions dominated the court, he had no church duties, and was responsible rather forcourt music. The period brought the composition of a number of instrumental works. Thefinal 27 years of Bach's life brought a variety of preoccupations, and while his officialemployment necessitated the provision of church music, he was able to provide music forthe university collegium musicum and to write or re-arrange a number of important worksfor the keyboard.It seems almost too simple to suggest that Bach's concertosfall into three corresponding groups. Nevertheless at Weimar he arranged for soloharpsichord a number of concertos by Italian composers, as well as concertos by the youngprince Johann Ernst. At Cothen he wrote his violin concertos and the set he dedicated in1721 to the Margrave of Brandenburg. In Leipzig he arranged or composed a number ofconcertos for solo harpsichords, exploring a new form of concerto that was to assume thegreatest importance as the century progressed.The University collegium musicum in Leipzig met on Fridayevenings at Gottfried Zimmermann's coffee-house or in summer in his garden outside thecity. Bach took over direction of the group in 1729 and seems to have continued in thatposition until as late as 1744. Compositions for the collegium musicum, which involvedstudents and professional musicians, presumably include the Coffee Cantata, and thevarious concertos for one or more harpsichords, with strings.The fourth of Bach's Clavier Concertos, the Concerto in A major, BWV 10