BWV 1004 Chaconne
BWV 1004
Johann Sebastian Bach

The renaissance of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach in the 19th century is closely connected to the arrangements produced by famous musicians in an effort to make the sometimes strange and forbidding-sounding works palatable to a broad public. In 1853 Robert Schumann added a piano accompaniment to Bach's cello suites however, only the music to the Third Suite BWV 1009 has survived (EB 8431). But already on 8 February 1840, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy had accompanied Leipzig Gewandhaus concertmaster Ferdinand David at the piano in the performance of the two works for solo violin by Bach, whereby the Preludio was played as an encore. The famous Chaconne for violin and piano was published a few years later by no less than two publishers! Surprisingly, the former encore piece remained unpublished to this day.