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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Violin Concerto in A Minor, BWV 1041
Allegro - Andante - Allegro assai
00:00 Opening
00:18 Allegro
04:10 Andante
10:00 Allegro assai
13:39 Credits
Rachell Ellen Wong, violin
Tomà Iliev, violin • Tatiana Chulochnikova, violin • Yvonne Smith, viola • Gretchen Claassen, violoncello • Gabriel Benton, harpsichord
Eddie Frank, video • Chris Landen, audio
American Bach Soloists • Jeffrey Thomas, Artistic Director
Filmed in April 2021 in the Gold Ballroom of the Palace Hotel (San Francisco, California).
How we made the video: americanbach.org/Videos-Backs...
Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, one of Bach’s patrons, was a Vivaldi enthusiast, collecting his publications and even going so far as to write his own concertos in that style. For him, Bach transcribed several of Vivaldi’s compositions, work that bore fruit in Cöthen when the influence had been fully absorbed. For Cöthen’s star violinist Johann Spiess, Bach wrote several concertos including the Concerto in A Minor. The soloist’s virtuosic turns, the quick movement from ritornello to solo episodes, the strong melodic profiles, as well as long melodic inventions over an ostinato bass are indebted to Vivaldi’s example. But we also find more complex phrasing and melodic elaborations in counterpoint as well as a different, more mobile harmonic sense that is clearly Bach’s response to the music of Vivaldi, known as the “red priest” due to his famously bright red hair. A lively gigue-like final movement uses as its theme a subject derived from the opening measures of the first movement, a device that Bach also used in his Violin Concerto in E Major.
© 2021, American Bach Soloists
American Bach Soloists (ABS) are leading performers in the field of Baroque music, dedicated to historically informed performances of Bach and his contemporaries. ABS provides meaningful, memorable, and valuable musical experiences for our audiences through inspiring performances and recordings, and it supports the preservation of early music through educational programs for students and emerging professionals. Under the leadership of co-founder and Music Director Jeffrey Thomas, the ensemble has achieved its vision of assembling the world’s finest vocalists and period-instrument performers to bring this brilliant music to life.
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