During his employ at Weimar in the early part of his
career, and at the request of Prince Johann Ernst,
Johann Sebastian Bach completed several transcriptions
for solo keyboard instruments of concertos originally
written for various solo instruments with ensemble
accompaniment. This series included 16 for harpsichord
(BWV 972-987) including at least six by Italian master
Antonio Vivaldi.
The Concerto for solo keyboard in F major No. 7 (BWV
978) is based on Vivaldi's Violin Concerto (RV...(+)
During his employ at Weimar in the early part of his
career, and at the request of Prince Johann Ernst,
Johann Sebastian Bach completed several transcriptions
for solo keyboard instruments of concertos originally
written for various solo instruments with ensemble
accompaniment. This series included 16 for harpsichord
(BWV 972-987) including at least six by Italian master
Antonio Vivaldi.
The Concerto for solo keyboard in F major No. 7 (BWV
978) is based on Vivaldi's Violin Concerto (RV 310),
Op. 3/3, from the famous collection L'estro armonico.
This collection was published in two volumes in 1711 in
Amsterdam, where Prince Johann Ernst, a student at the
Univesity of Utrecht at the time, probably encountered
it during his studies and travels. (The Prince had
heard the organist at Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kirke, Jan
Jacob de Graaf, perform his own keyboard transcriptions
of some Italian concertos and subsequently collected
several manuscripts and publications of concertos to
take back to Bach at Weimar.)
Bach altered the key from Vivaldi's original G major to
F major, but beyond that left the original structure
more or less intact. The work is cast in the standard
three movements, with a moderately fast opening
movement and a fast finale framing a Largo middle
movement.
Like Bach's other transcriptions based on concertos
from Vivaldi's Op. 3, (BWV 972, 976), this work seems
to translate relatively smoothly from its original
instrumentation (with solo violin) to harpsichord.
While in some of the Vivaldi transcriptions (such as
BWV 973 and 975, based on Vivaldi's RV 299 and 316,
respectively), Bach adapted certain flashy gestures
(idiomatic to the violin) for performance at the
keyboard with an emphasis on clarity of line and
variety of harmony, with less attention to fingerboard
acrobatics. In the opening movement, for example, there
seems to be too little time and too much linear
momentum for excessive ornamentation, while the D minor
second movement relies on the starkness of the repeated
chords and chromatic lines, rather than rhapsodic show,
for its expression. The quick triple meter and lively
solo/tutti exchanges of the final movement likewise
propel the piece toward its conclusion.
Although this piece was originally written for period
keyboard instrument, I arranged it for Concert (Pedal)
Harp.
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