Marvellous Maestros

Johann Sebastian Bach Orchestra Suite No.2 in B minor, 7. Badinerie

Corelli Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 8

Johann Sebastian Bach Brandenburg Concerto No 5 in D major, BWV 1050

I               Allegro

II             Affetuoso

III            Allegro

For reasons that remain obscure, only a relatively small part of Bach’s orchestral œuvre has been preserved for posterity.  The fact that so few works for instrumental ensemble have survived has let many researchers to the hypothesis that Bach was obliged to leave the majority of his compositions when he moved on to another post.  Other considerations establish a connection with the distribution of Bach’s compositions to his heirs after his death.  These reasons, coupled with a profound change in musical taste and fashion, led to Bach’s music plunging into obscurity after his death until his renaissance at the beginning of the 19^th century.  However, since then, Bach’s orchestral works have enjoyed enormous and enduring popularity.

In 1719, Bach visited Berlin on an errand, where he met Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg.  The following year Bach began to find that retaining his current position in Köthen was losing its appeal for a number of reasons, among which, reportedly, was Princess Friderica’s dislike of Bach’s music.  (Friderica was the new wife of Bach’s employer, Prince Leopold.)  Perhaps as a bid for a new position, Bach collected a group of his works and sent the dedicated score entitled ‘Six Concertos for Several Instruments’ to Margrave.

Now known as the ‘Brandenburg Concertos’ due to their dedicatee, each concerto has little in common with the others.  The instrumentation, keys and themes change from one concerto to the next, but in them, Bach took the realisation of the concerto form to a new level that was in every case convincing, novel and original.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 is famous for being considered as the herald of the keyboard concerto as a genre.  The virtuoso soloist is supported by a small concertino of flute and violin. The imposing harpsichord cadenza that almost bursts the boundaries of the first movement was added by Bach while he was preparing the definitive score for the dedicatee – presumably in order to remind the Margrave of his own skill as a virtuoso as well as try out a fancy new harpsichord he’d just purchased.  After the slow movement, an intensively worked-out quartet setting, the work concludes with a cheerful Gigue in a loose fugal form.

©  Elizabeth Boulton

Mozart Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K.622 

I               Allegro

II              Adagio

III             Rondo. Allegro

Mozart wrote his only concerto for clarinet and orchestra for his friend Anton Stadler in the space of about 10 days, when he was at the height of his powers, and only two months before his tragically early death. In Mozart’s day the clarinet was still quite a new instrument and was undergoing development by various makers. Mozart had a love affair with the clarinet and basset horn, with their rich sonorities and almost vocal qualities of expression. Mozart wrote the concerto for what should properly be called the basset clarinet, not to be confused with the basset horn, which is a tenor version of the standard clarinet. The concerto has survived not in Mozart’s manuscript, but in a set of parts with the clarinet solo written for normal clarinet, issued in 1801 – 10 years after Mozart’s death. It was published by the firm of Johann Andre, who had bought all Mozart’s surviving manuscripts from his widow, Constanza, in 1799. It is presumed, but by no means certain, that the arrangement for normal clarinet was by Andre himself.

Despite its curious birth, this is a glorious work: the first great concerto for the instrument and some would say still the greatest. The solo part displays the range and agility of the instrument as well as its velvety and soulful qualities, particularly exploring the differences between the higher and lower registers. A certain chamber-music quality reigns over the entire concerto, achieved partly through the integration of soloist and orchestra and partly through Mozart omitting the oboes and clarinets from the orchestra, in order to leave the middle woodwind register free for the soloist to exploit.

The first movement, in classical sonata form structure, is a wide-ranging and continuous melody. Although it is rich and varied in its ideas, the occasional chromatic passages and the soft phrase endings subtly impart a melancholic character.

The outer sections of the reflective Adagio are simple but warm and rich. The middle section, like the coda, is more elaborate for the clarinet, much of it in the lower register. The movement ends with the sort of quiet, seemingly inconsequential coda that was a Mozart speciality. In only six lightly scored measures, it seems to sum up all that has come before. Profound loneliness resides in this languorous elegy.

The rondo, based on the interplay of two melodies, provides a mostly high-spirited conclusion, yet moments of sadness still persist. This was the last major work that Mozart completed. Nine weeks after writing the clarinet concerto, he was dead. In this swan song, he left a testament to happiness and sadness, to hope and resignation.

© Elizabeth Boulton