Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 04/19/2000, uploaded on 03/18/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Concerto in D minor for 2 Violins, BWV 1043    Johann Sebastian Bach

Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, Strings and Continuo is one of his best known works and a prime example of the Baroque concerto form. It was composed in 1730-31 while Bach served as Kapellmeister in Köthen. He later transcribed the work for two harpsichords, transposing the key to C minor.

As is expected of a concerto, the three movements alternate in a fast-slow-fast progression. The first movement opens with a lively melody. It is immediately answered in the dominant key and accompanied by a countersubject that becomes an important figure throughout the rest of the movement. The two soloists weave delicate counterpoints around each other in the solo sections, often imitating each other’s melodic lines. A final statement of the melody closes the movement.

The following slow movement opens with a graceful melody in the second soloist. It is, then, answered by first soloist while the second provides a gentle sixteenth-note accompaniment. A new melody appears later, partially constructed from a fragment of the first theme, in which an ascending semitone is alternated between the two soloists—played legato by one and staccato by the other. Though a new melody, the pastoral mood is never abandoned. The first theme returns in the tonic key shortly before the close of the movement.

The energetic finale begins with a descending melodic line played by both soloists, though the second enters a quarter-note after the first, which becomes the motivic germ of the movement. Like the first movement, the soloists provide intricate counterpoints for each other as the melodic lines are constantly tossed between them.    Joseph DuBose

Recorded live.  At the time of the recording Elizabeth Woo was 11.