GMCD 7221 You can order this CD in our E-Shop under Instrumental/Music for Organ Reviews ***Sound Clips***	Johann Sebastian Bach Organ Masterworks The Vivaldi concerti Schübler Chorales & Trios Franz Hauk - Organ

Contents:

DDD Total Time = 78:44 / Recorded: Münster zur Schönen Unserer Lieben Frau, 15 August 1996 and 5 February 1997

Throughout his long creative life Johann Sebastian Bach frequently copied or arranged the works of other composers, either for study or for performance. As a result, he acquired a wide knowledge of music from France, Germany, Italy and other countries, and his own work received continual stimulation through his interest in different styles. It is not unusual to find that various of his works consciously attempt to integrate different styles within his own musical language.

During his appointment as court musician for Wilhelm Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar (1708-1717), Bach became particularly interested in the Italian concerto style of Vivaldi. This was doubtless not part of his duties as organist in the strictest sense, but Bach enjoyed an amicable relationship with the Duke's nephew, Prince Johann Ernst, who was particularly attracted to Vivaldi's concertos. The Prince was himself also a violinist and later distinguished himself as a composer, and the mutual regard he shared with Bach resulted in the latter arranging several concertos for the Prince. These included a number for keyboard instruments, five of which were for the organ. In how far these arrangements were made for private instruction or stemmed from an inner desire fo
r study is not entirely clear. Bach may have learned of similar transcriptions from the Prince, who had encountered them (but by which composers is not clear) during a study visit to the Netherlands.

The Concerto in G major BWV 592 is based on a violin concerto of Prince Johann Ernst himself. In its three-movement ritornello form, it is modelled on the form of a Vivaldi solo concerto. Bach's organ arrangement of the Prince's concerto has always been popular with players and listeners alike, with its mixture of liveliness, melody and straightforward expression. The arrangement is more well-known than the original, and as the original parts of the orchestral version are preserved, one can gain an interesting insight into Bach's approach to arrangements. The work has an untroubled charm which reflects its original conception.

The first movement is a model, as it were, of a simple ritornello, and is based throughout on two distinct ideas. The first, tutti, is short and terse with sequences which are contrasted with more lyrical episodes in triplets. Within this simple construction the movement achieves its effect; and the effervescent liveliness of the music compensates for a somewhat ordinary structure. Bach's self-assured musical momentum at times strives towards further simplification, and his use of the double pedal is remarkable. The delineation of the original solo and tutti is reflected in the differing manuals. The second movement, Grave, is also adapted from the Italian form; a solo central section surrounded by a tutti framework. In the organ version, Bach's amendations are more extensive than in the first movement. We note this in the finer arrangement of the accompaniment in the middle section (the standardisation of motifs and the canonical entry of the second part), in addition to its expansion to five parts at the end. The third movement - Presto - is a virtuoso and sparkling finale to the concert
o. Structured, like the first, as a ritornello, Bach is here presented with the problem of transcribing virtuoso violin writing and making it suitable for the keyboard. In this case, the stumbling-block is mainly in varied note repititions, wherein the movement's rapid tempo would quickly expose the purely mechanical unsatisfactory limitations of both fingers and instrument. Bach generally solves this problem by breaking down such parts into triads, or alternating, tremolo-like, the two-part leading melodies with simultaneously repeated notes. The result is not consistently organ-style writing, but it strikingly imitates violin scoring. The solo and tutti are not reflected here by different manuals, but through the pedal-part, whose appearance alone indicates the ripieno. The bass line is Bach's, who, through descending scales, accentuates the movement's powerful momentum.

The Concerto movement in C major BWC 595 is, according to a copy, also an (incomplete) arrangement of one of the Prince's compositions. There is no existing transcription
by Bach of the same draft for the cembalo (BWV 594), which contains all the movements. However, the first movement appears as a substantially abridged version. As the original is, at present, not available, it is impossible to establish with certainty which of the two versions is closer to the draft. It is therefore difficult to state with certainty which changes are Bach's.

In comparison with the organ version, the texture of the cembalo version is thinner, owing to the cembalo lacking a pedal. On the other hand, the differences in the texture are such that they could not be satisfactorily explained by arising from other essential simplifications. This view, and the previously mentioned greater length of BWV 595, suggest that Bach's intervention in the draft was deeper than with BWV 592.

The main theme of the ritornello movement is similar to that of BWV 592; i
t has the same brevity. However, while the sequence in the G major Concerto belongs entirely to the ritornello, in BWV 595 the dialogue sequence in half-tempo is spread over both manuals. This, in turn, blurs the delineation between episodes and ritornellos, especially as the solos retain a sequential motif (introduced as early as the third bar) throughout the movement. In the face of this seeming lighter material, the movement contains many beautiful and interesting passages - such as the transitions leading to new statements of the ritornello, and Neapolitan sixth chords. The pronounced use of manual changes anticipates one of Bach's own major organ works, the 'Dorian' Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538.

The Concertos in A minor BWV 593 and D minor BWV 596 recall the Concerto for two Violins opus 3 no 4 and the Concerto Grosso opus 3 no 11 of Antonio Vivaldi, both of which were published in Amsterdam in 1711. It may be that they were two of the concertos which Prince Johann Ernst had sent to Weimar on the occasion of his visit to the Netherlands. Compared to the Prince's own concertos, Vivaldi's are more extensive and complex, and more freely structured. The changes Bach made for his transcriptions are slightly different to those of BWV 592 and 595, where the transcriptions adhere faithfully to the original texts to a greater extent.

In the arrangement of the three-movement Concerto in A minor, BWV 593, we note that through imitation, pauses, and the enlargement of often quite simple bass lines (or their replacement with virtuoso runs for the left hand), Bach intensifies the music. However, Bach omits the continuo in bars 51ff in the first movement, so that at this point the main theme occurs in blank octaves - a surprisingly original effect which one might associate with Vivaldi. In the third movement, one finds the exact opposite. Here Bach combines the pulse of bars 59ff with pedal figuration borrowed from the introductory theme of the movement. The manual changes in the middle section are not solely used for delineating solo and tutti (any more as in the concertos after Johann Ernst), but include what might be called a dynamic layering of solo voices - as in typical string-orchestral writing.

Whilst the Concerto BWV 593 maintains a typical Vivaldi concerto form, we encounter in the D minor Concerto BWV 596 a work of unusual structure: four movements, with a preludial-like first movement and a transition, of a few chords, to the second movement - which is cast as a fugue. This is followed by a conventionally-structured third siciliano movement, and the work closes with a rather unusual ritornello finale. This begins with a concertino characterised by a chromatically descending bass motif.

This work is the only concerto transcription for organ by Bach which is preserved in autograph. It was thought for a long time to be a piece by his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann; he had made a note, using his father's handwriting, in which he appeared to pass himself off as the composer, an apparent deception which only came to light in 1911.

Problems in the arrangement of this work for organ arose from the limited register of instruments of Bach's time. To play the frequently encountered highest notes, the opening of the first movement had to be transposed down an octave and compensated for by a 4' registration. In the fugue, Bach avoids this problem by interchanging parts. The transitional chords between the first and second movements are headed Adagio e spiccato by Vivaldi; Bach, whilst maintaining the same notation, gives them greater force through the instruction Grave e pleno - reminiscent of a North German organ toccata rather than an Italian violin piece.

The Concerto in C major BWV 594 is seldom played. This transcription is based on Vivaldi's violin concerto in D major, published as opus 7/II no 5, which Bach has transposed one tone lower. Bach specialists have tended to criticise this as being a weak composition, for the nature of the music so suits the single-voiced violin that it sounds awkward on a keyboard. Additionally, the cadenzas are not in the original Amsterdam edition. In any event, the date of publication, 1716, rules out a connection with the Prince, who died in 1715.

As with the instrumental recitative arrangement of the second movement (which does not form part of the 1716 edition) Bach's additions were criticised by Johann Schreyer who asked how it was that a great composer could have "composed such barrel-organ hummings...for the organ." This is answered by consulting the Vivaldi autograph, as well as a copy of the orchestral version, which identify Vivaldi as the author both of the second movement and the episodes in question. Perhaps it is precisely this exceedingly effective work which challenges the transcriber (more properly, 'recomposer') to recreate Vivaldi's violin virtuosity adequately on the organ.

The Trios, BWV 585, 586 and 587, are also transcriptions of works by others. Of a different nature to the concert transcriptions (their 'big brothers') their chamber music forms were sometimes adapted by Bach as practice works for Wilhelm Friedemann. Two of these arrangements require an unusually large pedal range reminiscent of the organ in Weissenfels, on whose long pedal keyboard - rising to F - they could have been performed without a problem. Why would Bach have prescribed notes in the arrangement which he did not have nn his own instrument?

A further piece of circumstantial evidence suggests that the F major Aria BWV 987 is a middle movement between the Toccata and Fugue in F major BWV 540, in which the pedal part also goes to F, again pointing to Weissenfels. However, none of this is certain. In reality, the piece originates from François Couperin, and is taken from his collection 'Sonates et suites de symphonies en Trio Les Nations'. As with the two other Trios played here, the arrangement does not survive in Bach's own handwriting. Existing copies also do not point to Bach as the arranger. But having regard to the circumstantial evidence one can reasonably attribute these practically literal transcriptions to Bach's circle - which knew of Couperin's work and held it in high esteem.

George Philip Telemann is assumed to be the composer of the Trio in G major BWV 586. Despite no score having thus far survived which would match the arrangement, a partita movement of Telemann with the same melody was found in Bach's estate.

Both the original and the composer of the two-movement Trio in C minor BWV 585 are known. They come from the first two movements of a church sonata by Johann Friedrich Fasch, a one-time fellow applicant of Bach's for the position of choir master at the Leipzig Thomaskirche.

SIX CHORALES
The so-called 'Schübler' chorales (named after Bach's publisher Georg Schübler) BWV 645-650 are not original compositions for the organ but are transcriptions by Bach of his own music.

A few years before his death Bach arranged movements from his church cantatas for the organ, all containing a chorale as a cantus firmus. The arrangements, generally faithful to the original, appear quite natural on the organ - which goes some way to explain the popularity that these works have always enjoyed.

All six chorales share ritornello form in some way: five require two manuals and a pedal, and four are arranged as Trios. With due consideration for each underlying chorale text, Bach bestows an individual expression through the obbligato voices, translating the words into music, while the chorale melody is elaborately woven into the movement as its backbone.

BWV 645
The expressive melody which is combined with the chorale melody (from which Cantata BWV 140 of the same name is taken), symbolizes the joyful song of the bride Zion, about whom the tenor sings in the second verse of the Cantata:

BWV 646
No draft remains of the cantata to this chorale trio, which states the cantus firmus in the alto register, between turbulent semiquaver figurations of soprano and bass. One hopes the search for the lost original by Bach will continue; in any case, the annotated chorale (with its restless character) suggests the first text as the basis of the arrangement.

BWV 647
This chorale arrangement for four voices is the only one of the six for manual and pedal. It originates from the Cantata BWV 93, in which the chorale is heard in the tenor, and as a duet for soprano and alto with bass continuo. Originally, the fourth verse was arranged.

BWV 648
This comes from the Cantata BWV 10, in which the orginal has the cantus firmus of the Gregorian Magnificat played by oboe and trumpet against a duet for alto and tenor. At the beginning and end stands the central motif, which expresses the 'humble submission and lifting of spirits' (as H. Keller states), given to the bass as one voice.

BWV 649
With restless ascending and descending figurations which, in the Cantata BWV 6 (from which this is taken), is entrusted to violoncello piccolo while the soprano sings the cantus firmus, Bach allows us to hear (again in H. Keller's words) the 'restlessness of the world which only finds peace in the comforting proximity of the chorale'.

BWV 650
Bach closes the cycle with a work rich in dance-like joy. The swinging violin writing in 9/8 surrounds the second verse of the chorale from the Cantata BWV 137. Why Bach veiled such a successful combination between this rhythmic Trio and the original text (by the insertion of the Advent verse) is no longer apparent. The attentive listener will recall the well-known original verse.

Page revised 27.06.03