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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Violin Concerto in E Major, BWV 1042
Allegro - Adagio - Allegro assai
00:00 Opening
00:18 Allegro
08:42 Adagio
15:12 Allegro assai
17:58 Credits
Tomà Iliev, violin
Tatiana Chulochnikova, violin • Rachell Ellen Wong, 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...
Between the years of 1717 and 1723, Bach composed orchestral and chamber music for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. The young prince was an accomplished amateur musician who played keyboard instruments, the violin, and the viola da gamba, and he sang with a good baritone voice. Since Cöthen was a Calvinist principality with no tolerance for elaborate church music, Bach’s desire to write sacred cantatas had to be put on hold until he would take up his post in Leipzig. For the time being, however, the excellent court orchestra of about eighteen players was probably an inspiration to Bach. The prince went to considerable expense to assemble not only the best players in the land, but also to acquire the best instruments. These years were among the happiest of Bach’s life.
During those years at Cöthen, Bach composed (or at least put into final form) two of the Orchestral Suites, the Brandenburg Concertos, the violin concertos, the sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and the solo ‘cello suites. All of these are considered to be supreme eighteenth-century masterpieces of their genres. The concertos, especially, mark Bach’s fascination with, and his supreme mastery of the Italian concerto grosso style, which is marked by the interactions of soloist(s) and ripienists (the non-soloist members of the orchestra), who play alternatively or together (called tutti).
This process is most easily recognized in the opening movement of the E Major violin concerto, BWV 1042, a work that Bach most probably composed during his years as court Kapellmeister at Cöthen (1717-23). Here the opening triad is particularly memorable and, indeed, when the solo violin plays independent material, fragments of this ritornello continually interrupt, as if to reaffirm its dominance. It is tempting to see Bach’s approach to ritornello writing as an allegory of his position in court life: the individual’s expression must be articulated entirely within the hierarchy of the princedom, and only once this relationship has been fully established can the soloist be accorded more freedom as the piece unfolds. Not only is the ritornello repeated at the end, but, in fact, the entire first section: thus, the thematic independence of the violin is checked by a return to the initial order, or, rather, it is framed and supported by the two outer pillars of courtly society. In the central movement the violin commands the stage with its long, lyrical lines expressing anything but an outer, objective, courtly order. Nevertheless, the whole is supported by an ostinato bass pattern, which preserves the same motivic content throughout virtually every measure of the piece. Thus, the most heartfelt expression is heard only against an unobtrusive, but entirely necessary bass line, again representing the individual within the context of an indispensable background order. Exactly the same sort of relationships are evident in the final movement, a joyous dance (rondo) in which the opening theme returns, with almost mechanical regularity, in the tonic of 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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