April 19: Concertos for Two, Three and Four Harpsichords (BWV 1060, 1061, 1062, 1064, 1065; Cologne Chamber Orchestra; Helmut Muller-Bruhl, conductor)

Lotsa notes.

There’s a scene in the movie, “Amadeus” where Emperor Joseph obliquely expresses his low opinion of Mozart’s new work. The Emperor tells his aghast court composer, “There are, in fact, only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening.”

This post covers my first exposure to Bach’s Concertos for Two, Three and Four Harpsichords.

So many notes.

Just as he did in the Harpsichord Concertos which we listened to in January, Bach once again has adapted his epic Violin Concertos and Double Concerto, but this time for multiple harpsichords. (The four harpsichords piece is an adaptation of a work by Vivaldi. All of these 1998 performances by the Cologne Chamber Orchestra with Helmut Muller-Bruhl conducting can be found on this collection on Naxos. (Apple Music, Spotify.))

Was Bach thinking something like this?

Maybe it’s because I know these concertos for strings so well, and love them so much, that these adaptations for lots of fingers feel to me like Bach gilding his own lilies. (I know of at least one reader who is upset with me right now.)

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I generally find that piano music for four hands and music for two pianos leaves me unsatisfied. It’s hard for even the greatest performers to stay out of each other’s way, and something about the percussive nature of the piano and twenty possible simultaneous notes always winds up with too much clash.

Of course, these pieces are not without their pleasures. Here are some highlights.

BWV 1062 is a remake of the Double Concerto. Here’s where the melody appears and develops in the opening of the original (Stern, Perlman and the New York Philharmonic):

And here’s the harpsichord version, still great, but I prefer the strings only version.

A great moment of contrast in the second movement where the strings get stretched and held against all the plinky harpsichord notes (0:07-0:20 in the clip):

The concluding moments of the allegro third movement are poppin’:

The second movement of BWV 1061 strips down to two harpsichords. Very pleasant stuff. Maybe it’s easier for me to absorb because it’s slower. Bach doesn’t give any mid-movement resolutions, so here’s a snippet:

The finale vivace of 1061 mostly features the two harpsichords, but the orchestra is brought in big and powerfully a few times. I love the five big bass notes on the downbeats starting at 0:15:

The slow middle movement of BWV1062 has three harpsichords coming in one by one, listen on headphones for the separation:

Four is just a lot of harpsichords. Here they are with the orchestra in the concluding moments from BWV 1065, Bach’s homage to Vivaldi.

May your weekend be filled with harpsichord, should that be to your liking!