ExclusiveBach: Concerto for 2 Harpsichords in C major, BWV 1061 - Complete Performance

【Classical music and nature 古典音樂小站】Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for 2 Harpsichords in C major, BWV 1061 - Complete Performance. This beautiful piece was played by Sylvia Marlowe. It has Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0 DEED Attribution 3.0 Unported) and is provided through www.musopen.org.

This concerto, scored for two harpsichords, two violins, viola and continuo, is probably the only harpsichord concerto by Bach that originated as a harpsichord work. The first version was for two unaccompanied instruments (BWV. 1061a, in the manner of the Italian Concerto, BWV. 971) and the addition of the orchestral parts may not have been by Bach himself. In fact, the strings seem to be there only to reinforce the cadences.

It was only after reading this description that I realised that the violins, which so often play the leading role, are in fact so modestly arranged to serve the harpsichords.

Because Johann Sebastian Bach is one of my absolute favourite composers and what he can do with his creativity is just out of this world. So when I talk about the sound of the harpsichord, I am not talking about the arrangement, just the unique sound of the instrument.

I have had the pleasure of playing a harpsichord, albeit a few times (with my very limited knowledge of piano playing), and I will never forget the uniqueness of the playing or the sound. Your playing is obviously lacking the fullness of a grand piano (which I adore), but have a crispness non of the pianos will never acheieve.

What do you think? Do you like the sound of harpsichords?

The video was captured by Christian Schlegel and edited by Wenjing Ma.





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