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by. In cold months the group gathered at Zim-mermanns coffeehouse, in Leipzigs Cather-inestrasse; during the summer they moved outof doors, either to the cafs garden or to somesite on the outskirts of town. Bach directed thegroup from 1729 to 1741 (with a two-yearbreak from1737 to1739), andoften dipped intohis back catalogue of compositions when craft-ing new pieces for the Collegium to explore.An analysis of the tessitura and other mu-

sical characteristics of Bachs C-minor Con-certo for Two Harpsichords and Strings (BWV1060) has led to the generally accepted be-lief that it was initially a Double Concerto forOboe and Violin, under which guise it is per-formed here. A 1764 catalogue from the pub-lishing firm of Breitkopf lists a Bach concertofor oboe and violin; although it fails to men-tion the works key, it does confirm that Bach

Concerto in D minor forOboe, Violin, and Strings,BWV 1060

Johann Sebastian Bach

Some of Johann Sebastian Bachs concer-tos come down to us in multiple versions, andwhen they dont it is widely assumed that theexisting text may be all that survives ofa lost original. All of his solo concertos withorchestra there are only seven completeones exist as harpsichord concertos, butnone is thought to have been first created tospotlight that instrument. Earlier violin ver-sions of several are unquestionably authen-tic; indeed, it makes sense that Bach, whowas an adept violinist as well as a brilliantkeyboard player, should have chosen to fea-ture the violin in severalof his concertos.For the most part, Bach

wrote his harpsichord con-certos either for courtlyentertainment or for useby the members of theLeipzig Collegium Mu-sicum. The Collegiumwasa society of university stu-dents, interested amateurmusicians, and a few pro-fessionals who met mostFriday evenings to playmusic for their own pleas-ure, as well as for thedelectation ofmembers ofthe public who dropped

In Short

Born: March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Germany

Died: July 28, 1750, in Leipzig

Work composed: This concerto is a reconstruction of a work which Bach isthought to have written between 1717 and 1723.

World premiere: There is no information available about the early performancehistory of this work.

New York Philharmonic premiere: premiered December 30, 1961, WernerTorkanowsky, conductor, Joseph Silverstein, violin, and Principal Oboe HaroldGomberg, soloists

Most recent New York Philharmonic performance: March 24, 2005, KentNagano, conductor, Sheryl Staples and Sherry Sylar, soloists

Estimated duration: ca. 14 minutes

Notes on the ProgramBy James M. Keller, Program AnnotatorThe Leni and Peter May Chair

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penned a piece for this instrumental combi-nation. Dissenting opinions persist, however,and all reconstructions or, more precisely,retro-constructions involve considerablespeculation. That explains why this piece canbe found in modern versions for oboe and vi-olin (or for two violins) in the keys of both Cminor and D minor, the latter being the ver-sion to be performed in this concert.Commenting about the double harpsichord

concertos that we know today as BWV 1060and BWV 1061, Johann Forkel wrote, in his1802 biography of Bach: The first is very old,but the second is as new as if it had been com-posed only yesterday. Recent musicologicalopinion agrees with Forkels statement thatBWV 1060 was very old at that time. Bach

almost surely wrote it in its original version some time between 1717 and 1723, during histenure as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold ofCthen, and refashioned it for two harpsichordsconsiderably later in Leipzig. The 13-memberinstrumental ensemble available to him atCthen fell short of what we would consider amodern orchestra; this is why Bachs orches-tral pieces of that period still stand with onefoot planted in the realm of chamber music. Asit happens, the manuscript for both the pre-sumed original and the revision are lost, but atleast the two-harpsichord arrangement hassurvived in reliable copies from the period.This is an aggressive and intensely emo-

tional work, the more so in the version thatemploys the pungent tones of the oboe and

Angels and Muses

Johann Sebastian Bach was 32 years old when he assumed the position of Kapellmeister (music director) atthe Court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cthen, in December 1717. It was a big decision for the composer, whoalready had a perfectly good job as orchestra leader for the Duke of Weimar, where he had worked since 1708(his second stint there, actually, following his brief first appointment in 1703). Accepting the new position waspersonally disruptive beyond the fact that it entailed moving Bachs quickly growing family the distance ofabout 60 miles; the Duke refused to accept Bachs resignation and had him held under arrest for a month be-fore he finally relented and let his music director go.

The allures of Cthenwere substantial. Leopolds realmmay havebeen small (with just 5,000 subjects), but his passion for music wasboundless. He was a reasonably accomplished performer on theviola da gamba, and he traveled to France, England, Italy, and theNetherlands to polish his skills not only as a gambist but also as a vi-olinist and harpsichordist. As a teenager the Prince had convincedhis mother to start hiring a musical staff with whom he could playchamber music, and by the time he assumed the throne himself theassemblage had grown into a full-fledged collegium musicum (es-sentially a chamber orchestra) of about 13 players. As it happened,FriedrichWilhelm I, King of Prussia, had just then decided to putmoremoney into military spending, and as a result Leopold had his pickof the newly unemployed players who had belonged to the Kingsorchestra. In addition to these musical inducements there wasLeopolds practically unbeatable financial proposal: Bach would bethe second-highest-paid employee of the entire court, and his wifewould be paid half as much to serve as a singer. Unfortunately, thenearly six and a half yearsBach spent in Cthenwould not be entirelyhappy. His wife died in 1720, leaving him a single father of sevenchildren; but he remarried a year and a half later, and generallyprospered, moving on only when offered the prestigious position ofThomaskantor in Leipzig, in 1723.Prince Leopold of Anhalt

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the wide-ranging expressive possibilities ofthe violin. It is cast in the standard Italianatepattern of three movements, the first ofwhich is a fine example of the harmonic den-sity that some of Bachs followers would de-plore as turgid. The texture lightens, however,for a luminous, introspective slow movementin which the two soloists weave their lines inelegant counterpoint above simple chords in

the orchestra. A brittle theme is stronglyetched by the soloists and orchestra at theoutset of the final movement, which in a cen-tral episode boosts the violinist into the spot-light to proclaim great sweeps of triplets.

Instrumentation: solo oboe and violin withan orchestra of strings and continuo (com-prising harpsichord, cello, and bass).

At the Time

In the year 1717, when J.S. Bach began his employment at Prince Leopolds court in Cthen, and apparentlybegan composing the work on this program, the following events were taking place:

The first Premier Grand Lodge ofFreemasons is established in Lon-don; in letters to friends in Eng-land, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu(16891762, pictured at top left)describes the practice of smallpoxinoculation in Constantinople;French Enlightenment philosopherFranois-Marie Arouet (16941778, top right), who wrote underthe pen name Voltaire starting in1718, is sentenced to imprison-ment in the Bastille for his satiricalwritings; the English pirate BlackSamBellamydies alongwithmorethan 140 members of his crewwhen his ship, the Whydah Gally,sinks during a storm off the coastof Cape Cod (the ship was recov-ered in 1984); the first levee, stand-ing at three feet tall, is built in NewOrleans on the Mississippi River;school attendance is made com-pulsory in Prussia; Britain, France,and the Netherlands sign the TripleAlliance, an effort to stem thepower of Spain in Europe; Frenchpainter Jean-Antoine Watteau(16841721) paints Pilgrimage onthe Isle of Cythera (center); GeorgeFrideric Handels Water Music isperformed for Englands KingGeorge I on the occasion of a royalbarge trip on the Thames, seen de-pictedhere in a painting byEdouardJean Conrad Hamman (bottom)

The Editors

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