On the program:
Sonata No. 3, BWV 1005: II. Fugue, and III. Largo (orig. for solo violin) - Jakob Lindberg, lute
Missa Brevis in F, BWV 233 (translation) - Cantus Cölln, Konrad Junghänel
Partita for traverso, strings, and continuo (after BWV 1016, 828, 1069, 825, 815, and 817) - Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, director
TRANSCRIPT:
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When J.S. Bach wrote this music, it was part of a large collection of six suites that eventually became his first published works. And it’s very likely that he never heard it quite this way.
This is conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini’s re-imagining of Bach’s music, in which he brings together parts of several different works and sets them in sonic textures the composer himself would recognize to create new suites. You’ll hear this piece and much more, coming up on The Bach Hour.
Hello, I’m Brian McCreath. Welcome to The Bach Hour from WCRB, Classical Radio Boston, a part of GBH Music. There are infinite possibilities for arranging Bach’s music in new ways. That’s partly because the nature of the music itself is so solid that, while the composer’s original settings are consistently brilliant, the essence of the music remains no matter what instruments it’s played on. And it’s also because, when a composer arranges Bach’s music for different settings, he or she is simply following the example of Bach himself, who constantly raided his own catalog to arrange and create new works. You’ll hear that in Bach’s Missa Brevis, or Short Mass, in F major later in the hour. And if you’d like to see a translation of that piece, just visit us online at Classical dot org, where you can also hear this program again on demand. Again, that’s a Classical dot org.
Bach began his musical life as a violinist and eventually became one of Europe’s great organists. And although he didn’t play the lute, he seems to have had real affection for that instrument. That inspired one of the great lutenists of our time to create this version of the Fugue and Largo from Bach’s Sonata No. 3, originally for solo violin and arranged and performed on the lute by Jakob Lindberg, here on The Bach Hour.
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Two parts of Bach’s Sonata No. 3, originally for solo violin and arranged and played here on the lute by Jakob Lindberg.
I’m Brian McCreath, and you’re listening to The Bach Hour.
When Bach was in his mid-40’s - well established as one of the leading composers and performers of his time - he began to look at his sacred music beyond its function for specific dates on the church calendar. He wanted to assure that it would stand the test of time, not only for his own purposes, but also for others who would consider performing it for years to come. So, to create sacred music with a more evergreen quality, he went to his collection of roughly 300 or so cantatas and carefully chose specific movements that he could re-cast in a new form for the Kyrie and Gloria sections of the Latin mass text, words that would resonate throughout any particular time on the church calendar and offer more performance options for musicians at churches around Germany.
You can just picture Bach, looking through his files, scanning the movements of cantatas he had written, some of them as much as a decade earlier. And then he comes across a short, joyful cantata from the first Christmas season he spent in his adopted home of Leipzig.
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And in his mind, he begins to imagine that opening with voices layered on top of the instrumental music, singing words from the mass that translate as, “together with the Holy Ghost in the glory of God the Father.”
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Over the centuries, that kind of adaptation has led some critics to a kind of dim view of these short masses, as if Bach didn’t put as much work into them as the music he wrote from scratch. But, if you were to hear this music without knowledge of its source material, it would sound like a fresh take on an ancient text. And maybe that’s enough to consider them every bit as impressive as the cantatas.
Here is the Missa brevis in F major. Konrad Junghänel conducts Cantus Köln, with soloists drawn from the choir, here on The Bach Hour.
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The Missa brevis, or short mass, in F major, by J.S. Bach, from his set of four mass settings that are also known as the “Lutheran Masses.” Konrad Junghänel led this performance by Cantus Köln, with soloists drawn from the choir.
When he’s not conducting rarely heard Italian operas and oratorios, conductor and harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini occasionally follows Bach’s own example of re-casting the composer’s keyboard music in new settings. He’s created ensemble versions of the Italian Concerto and the Goldberg Variations, among others. And here is a piece that takes that process even further, in a Partita for traverso - or Baroque flute - with dance movements drawn from several works, including the French Suites, Orchestral Suites, and Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord. This is Concerto Italiano, led by Rinaldo Alessandrini, here on The Bach Hour.
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That’s Concerto Italiano, with their flutist, Laura Pontecorvo, in a Partita - or suite of dance movements - made up of several movements of Bach’s music, arranged by the founder and conductor of that ensemble, Rinaldo Alessandrini.
Remember, you’ll find more of The Bach Hour online at Classical dot org.
Thank you for joining me today, and thanks also to audio engineer Antonio Oliart Ros. I’m Brian McCreath, and I’ll hope to have your company again next week here on The Bach Hour.