Bach - Organ Concerto In A Minor, Based On Vivaldi Concerto For Two Violins BWV 593

Near the end of Johann Sebastian Bach's life there was a move away from the more 'learned' forms in music, mainly fugue and counterpoint. His sons were some of the leaders of this change to the  style galant that would lead to the Classical Era of Haydn and Mozart. Amid all the changes in musical style of the time, the Elder Bach's music was being looked upon as well crafted, but old fashioned. But Johann Sebastian could compose in the newer style of melody and accompaniment when he so chose. Bach was in many ways the culmination of the Baroque Era in music, and within that culmination lay the seeds of the future.

The Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi had his set of concertos titled L'estro Armonico, Opus 3 (Harmonic Inspiration) published in 1711. This was a set of 12 concertos for one, two or four violins and was a very influential set of compositions. Bach was introduced to the music of Vivaldi with these concertos while he was in the employ of the Duke of Weimar's court for the second time from 1708 to 1717. Bach went on to transcribe and arranged 8 of Vivaldi's concertos for differing ensembles. The concerto  in A Minor for two violins, violins, cello and continuo was arranged by Bach as a concerto for solo organ.

From his childhood, Bach learned from other composers by copying out or arranging their music. it was a time when many works were copied out by hand by composers and performers as the publishing of music was an expensive endeavor and as a result the printed copies were expensive to purchaseVivaldi's work was assimilated by Bach in the same way, and Vivaldi made a lasting impression on his music.

Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi's original concerto's figured bass continuo part was fleshed out by Bach, with the two solo parts and accompaniment spread out over the manuals of the organ. It is interesting to compare the original with Bach's transcription, as it gives some idea of Bach's skill and knowledge of what the organ was capable of. Bach was a literal 'one man band' when he played the instrument. Bach maintained the Italian style of the originals as well as most of the notes contained in the two solo violin parts. The violin and organ are two vastly differnet instruments, so the literal transrciption of most of the solo parts causes some real difficulties for the organist, but as Bach made these transcriptions for his own use, that was probably of no concern. The concerto is in three movements:

I. Allegro -  The concerto begins with two chords and a downward run. Vivaldi's concertos are full of fast scales up and down the fingerboard of the violin and Bach includes them in this concerto. The first movement is rapid and is in the home key of A minor.

II. Andante -  In Vivaldi's original, the first four bars of the second movement are played by all the instruments, after which they are repeated throughout the movement as a continuous accompaniment to the solo violins that play different melodies. Bach maintains the ostinato in one manual as the soloist parts play in the other. The pedals are silent in this movement, and it is in the key of D minor.  The soloists remain silent as the four bars of the beginning play to end the movement.

III. Allegro - The music returns to a brisk tempo and the key of A minor. After the initial statement is repeated, Bach changes the chords played by one of the solo violins to running sixteenth notes while keeping the original eighth notes of the original, one of the few actual alterations to the notes of the original. This adds brilliance to the music, perhaps Bach was flexing his organ playing muscles. He must have liked the effect for he repeats the changes later in the movement.

There was probably more than one reason for Bach's transcription. Perhaps his royal employer wished to hear the music of Vivaldi, perhaps Bach wanted to show his employer what he could do on the instrument. Whatever the extenuating reasons, Bach took the opportunity and made it a learning experience.

Buxtehude - Praeludium In G Minor BuxWV. 149

The oldest known type of musical instrument is the flute. Examples made from animal bone have been found in caves that were inhabited by early humans between 30,000 - 40,000 years ago. There is still much debate in the scientific community as to the exact dates, but there is not doubt that they were flutes as they had v-shaped mouthpieces and finger holes.

Taking a huge jump forward in history some 30,000 years (give or take)  to Greece in the 3rd century B.C.E., there is the first known example of an organ. This instrument was called the Hydraulis, (literally water organ in Greek) as it used wind pressure derived from water to sound the pipes. The Hydraulis was also the first instrument known to have a keyboard. So the pipe organ as we know it is an ancestor of the first flutes made from bone and the Hydraulis of ancient Greece.

Another jump forward in history to the 14th century sees further advancement in the pipe organ as now it has not only a keyboard and pipes, but a source of air pressure from bellows operated by humans. Organs at this time also had different sets of pipes, or ranks, that could be engaged with the keyboard in many combinations to create different sounds from the instrument.

By the time of J. S. Bach, organ playing had evolved into different schools, one of which was the Northern German school of organ playing. Musicologists have traced the beginnings of the North German school back to a Dutch composer and teacher, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, (1562 - 1656)  who had German students that carried the style back to Germany.  One of the most famous organ players and composers of the North German School was Dieterich Buxtehude (1637? - 1707) He was trained by his father who was also an organist, and eventually ended up in  Lübeck at the Marienkirche as organist and music director.

Jan Pieterzoon Sweelinck

Buxtehude enlarged the Abendmusik, a series of evening concerts performed in the church. This series began in 1641 and ended in 1810 and Buxtehude was the first composer to play the organ at these concerts. The businessmen of Lübeck paid for these concerts so they were free to the public.  Buxtehude's reputation was so great as a result of these concerts that Bach, Handel, Matteson and other composers of the time would travel to Lübeck to hear him play. The influence of Buxtehude on the next generation of composers was enormous.

Buxtehude is most well known for his organ music, but he wrote many vocal compositions, most of which are not thought to have survived. His ninteen Praeludium (preludes) for organ make up the core of his surviving organ works.  They are works that consist of sections within each piece, usually a mixture of free improvisation and counterpoint. There are no two preludes that are exactly the same in number of sections to them, and they are considered to be Buxtehude's most important contribution to the North German school.

The Praeludium In G Minor, BuxWV 149 is a work in five sections.

Section 1 -  A short toccatta opens the work and then an ostinato theme is played in the bass while a free improvisation is carried over it.
Section 2 -  A fugue for 4 voices.
Section 3 -  After the fugue runs its course, this section returns to toccatta-like free form.
Section 4 -  Another 4 voice fugue.
Section 5 -  This last free form section grows directly out of  the preceding fugue and the piece ends rather suddenly.

Buxtehunde is not considered an innovator. At the most he was a transitional composer that combined the North German school with influences from Italian music.  But he wrote music that showed great skill and surprising emotional appeal. He must have been exceptional in improvisation at a time when musicians were expected to be able to improvise, as the existing organ music shows. Much of it has an improvisatory sound to it.

Litolff - Concerto Symphonique No. 3 in E-flat Major 'National Hollandais'

Henry Litolff began his life in London, born in 1818 to a Scottish mother and a French father who had been a member of Napoleon's army who had been captured and taken to England. His father was his first teacher until he played for virtuoso pianist Ignaz Moscheles in 1830, who gave him free piano lessons. Litolff gave his first concert at fourteen years of age.

When he was seventeen he eloped with an English girl to Paris. He soon separated from his wife, moved to Brussels and ended up in Warsaw, Poland. He led the life of a traveling virtuoso and in 1844 settled in Germany and began teaching. One of his pupils was Hans von Bülow.

A wandering man by nature, he returned to England in 1845 to obtain a divorce from his wife but ended up in prison instead. He managed to escape prison (a rumor says that the jailer's daughter assisted his escape), bribed his way onto a fishing boat and ended up in Holland. He wrote his 3rd Concerto Symphonique in 1846 during his stay in Holland. 

Litolff finally got a divorce from his wife and promptly married another woman in 1851, the widow of his friend and publisher Gottfried Meyer. Litolff gained control of the publishing house with the marriage, changed the name of the business to Litoll Verlag and created the Litolff Editions of classical music that were inexpensive and more readily accessible to the general public. Three years later Litolff turned the publishing house over to his step-son, divorced his second wife and  moved once again to Paris. He married again, and when his third wife died in 1873, he married his seventeen year old nurse. He died in a suburb of Paris in 1891 after suffering from bad health for a number of years.

In his younger years Litolff's piano playing abilities were so great that he earned the nickname of The English Liszt. The four existing Concerto Symphoniques (the first is lost) attest to his pianistic abilities for they are bristling with virtuoso writing and he played them in concert. But he was also a skilled and colorful orchestrator. The Concerto Symphonique is Litolff's contribution to the concerto literature and are so-called because they are 4-movement works. The works are written symphonically, as opposed to the concertos mainly written for pianistic display, but they essentially follow traditional concerto form in their first movements:

I. Maestoso -  The timpani opens the movement and leads the woodwinds to the statement of the beginning of the first theme. The first theme leads directly to the second theme which is shorter than the first.  Parts of the first theme return and lead to the entrance of the piano that plays a cadenza-like flourish. The piano and orchestra expand on the themes already heard. The development section contains the second theme that is now turned into a lyrical piece for piano and orchestra. Growing more and more passionate the music gives way to a short cadenza for the piano that leads to a restatement of the second theme and the first theme. Brilliant passages for the piano go up and down the keyboard as the music makes a rapid return to the beginning of the first theme that ends the movement.

II. Presto - Litolff's addition of a fourth movement to the piano concerto is always in the form of a scherzo. The pianist's rapid grace notes give the music a giddy quality that is overcome in the trio which is a full-throated march-like Dutch children's song, a tune Litolff heard while he was in Holland.  Litolff shifts the time signature from 3/8 in the scherzo to 6/8 in the march tune.

III. Andante - A simple song for piano and orchestra. There is a brief episode of tension, but the piano returns to the nocturne-like mood. The horn and the cellos play the tune in turn while the piano plays gentle figures as an accompaniment. The movement ends in a solemn mood.

IV. Allegro vivace -  The piano scampers up and down the keyboard in music of great lightness and agility. Litolff once again pays homage to his temporary Holland home as he quotes another Dutch tune as his second subject.

Litolff subtitled the concerto 'National Hollandais' (The Nation of Holland) and used two Dutch songs in the work as a tribute to the freedom he enjoyed after escaping prison in England.  He certainly lived a cosmopolitan life, and with such a busy life of concertizing, womanizing and publishing, where did he find the time to compose? His opus numbers go at least to 127, with a lot of other compositions without opus numbers, as well as 12 operas. 

Brahms/Schoenberg - Piano Quartet No. 1

With this work there is the rare opportunity of listening to what is one master composer's opinion of another master composer's work. Schoenberg orchestrated the 1st Piano Quartet of Brahms in 1937 after he had moved to Los Angeles, California to escape Germany and the persecution of Jews.  Schoenberg had converted to Christianity early in his life but in 1933 he changed back to Judaism, partly out of protest against the Nazi regime. He was soon labeled a decadent composer. His works were no longer allowed in the concert hall and he was most likely a doomed man.

He wrote a letter to a music critic in 1939 and explained his reasons for arranging Brahms' work for orchestra:

"My reasons: I like the piece. It is seldom played. It is always very badly played, because, the better the pianist, the louder he plays and you hear nothing from the strings. I wanted once to hear everything, and this I achieved. My intentions: To remain strictly in the style of Brahms and not to go farther than he himself would have gone if he lived today. To watch carefully all the laws to which Brahms obeyed and not to violate them, which are only known to musicians educated in his environment."

Perhaps another reason he did it was that at this time Schoenberg had already developed his "method of composing with twelve tones which are related only with one another". His method shook the world of serious music so he may have been trying to add legitimacy as a composer by orchestrating Brahms' work. He also gave a lecture and wrote a subsequent essay called Brahms The Progressive.  Schoenberg's objective was “to prove that Brahms, the classicist, the academician, was a great innovator in the realm of musical language, that, in fact, he was a great progressive.” He considered Brahms his musical ancestor, along with Wagner, Beethoven and Mozart. His new method of composing was not so much revolutionary as evolutionary, at least to Schoenberg.

Schoenberg began his composing life as a Late Romantic, but his compositions showed signs of breaking with tonality early on. Even after he developed and used his method, he would lapse back into his earlier style, especially in his older years.  Schoenberg was in some ways a paradox, as he expanded upon what Wagner and Liszt had begun while at the same time he championed Brahms as a progressive composer.  In his own compositions Schoenberg could be conservative in form as in many instances he stuck with traditional forms used by Romantic composers.

Schoenberg was faithful to Brahms' original work in that he changed no notes. His brilliant orchestration is another matter. Brahms' orchestration was like his solo piano music; not outwardly brilliant and colorful, but complex and well written. Brahms' orchestration suited the character of his symphonic works perfectly. Schoenberg's orchestration of the work is radically different from what Brahms would have done.  My post of Brahms original version of this work can be found here.

I wouldn't say that Schoenberg's arrangement suits Brahms' music like a glove, but it does have its moments. Shoenberg begins with a rather straightforward arrangement of the first movement, but after that each movement gets stamped with Schoenberg's style more and more. It leads to the final movement, an absolutely wild rendition of Brahms' Rondo alla Zingarese. With more and more percussion and quirky orchestral techniques, Shoenberg  pulls out all the stops and makes music that is pretty wild in its original form completely over the top.  Schoenberg had a liking for and understanding of Brahms' music, that much shows in the arrangement. Schoenberg's orchestration doesn't cancel out the greatness of the original, but it is interesting. And frankly, Schoenberg's last movement is incredible.

Brahms - Studies For Pianoforte, Variations On A Theme Of Paganini Opus 35

Johannes Brahms' music for solo piano is not usually filled with brilliant effects or obvious virtuosity. The difficulties in Brahms music are covert, and many times not obvious to the listener.  But his music is not easy to play. It can be dense of texture and complicated in structure. It takes a great technician and fine musician to play Brahms and bring out all of the voices (he was a master of counterpoint) and details. After Robert Schumann heard the young Brahms play his early piano sonatas, he called them not sonatas but, "veiled symphonies".

Brahms himself was no slouch as a pianist. He had the technique and knowledge of the keyboard to write a brilliant virtuoso work. His Opus 35 set of variations prove it. He wrote them for the virtuoso Carl Tausig who was a student of Liszt and a pianist Brahms admired.  He wrote the variations on a theme of Paganini taken from the 24th Caprice For Solo Violin In A Minor, a work that Liszt had already written a transcription for piano for, and a work that was to inspire many other composers in the future.

Brahms had something different in mind, even in the title of the work. He called the work Studies For Pianoforte, Variations On A Theme Of Paganini, with the implication being that each of the variations are an etude that explores a particular aspect of piano playing.   The work is divided into two books of 14 variations, each one being an independent work in itself.  Many times both books are played in recitals. Brahms version of the theme is played to lead off both books, and most of the variations are in the original key of A Minor.

Book One
Theme - Brahms begins with the theme, but not in its original form. He adds grace notes to the melody in the right hand in the first section, adds grace notes to the left hand in the second section and, unlike the original, repeats the second section thus making the theme 24 bars long instead of the original 16:

Brahms keeps the general outline of the theme throughout the first thirteen variations, with all the variations being in the key of A minor except the 11th and 12th, which are in A major. But that is not to say that the variations are simple variants. The variations throw every kind of technical challenge at the pianist; intervals of all kinds, huge jumps, hand crossings, etc. The 13th variation is noteworthy for its use of octave glissandos in the right hand, quite difficult on the piano of Brahms day as well as the modern piano. The 14th variation is an extended section that goes beyond the 24-bar length of the theme and previous thirteen variations. Brahms introduces music that sounds like yet another variation before he adds a coda that rounds out and ends the first book.

Book Two
The theme is played again, all of the variations are in A minor, except for Variation 4 which is in A major and Variation 12 which is in F major. Again, Brahms writes variations of great difficulty but still stays within the same general outline of the theme. As with Book One, the 14th variation is an extended section that adds yet another two un-numbered variations that lead material that fully closes out Book Two.

Clara Schumann, widow of Robert Schumann called the piece Hexenvariationen (Witch's Variations) because they were so fiendishly difficult, and though she was one of the great pianists of the 19th century she could not play them. The piece remains one of the few examples of outwardly virtuosic piano music Brahms ever wrote. Along with the Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach and the Diabelli Variations of Beethoven, Brahm's set is one of  the greatest variations written.

Rheinberger - Concerto For Organ In G Minor Op. 177

Joseph Rheinberger was born in 1839 and showed musical talent early on. By the time he was seven years old he was already playing the organ in the church of his hometown,  Vadus in Lichtenstein. He attended the Munich Conservatory, and after graduating served as professor of piano and composition who most notably taught Wilhelm Furtwängler, Englebert Humperdink and many others. His influences in composition were Brahms, Schubert and J.S. Bach.

Rheinberger was a prolific composer and composed from the age of 12 until his death in 1901. He wrote for all the genres of his time. Most of his works suffered from neglect after his death except for the pieces for solo organ. His sonatas for organ and other pieces were in the repertoire of organists from early on and remained the one link to the composer for many years.

Rheinberger wrote two concertos for organ and orchestra. After the success of Organ Concerto No. 1 In F Major (written in 1884) Rheinberger was requested by organists to compose another concerto. Organ Concerto No. 2 In G Minor was written in 1894. While the first concerto is for organ, strings and three horns, the second concerto adds trumpets and timpani to the mix. The concerto is in three movements:

I. Grave - The strings play a short descending figure that leads to the appearance of the organ. The strings repeat the descending figure, and the organ replies again. Another theme is begun in the strings while the organ accompanies. The first movement is chock full of themes that are played by the strings and commented on by the organ. This is the nature of the entire concerto, as the orchestra and organ seldom conflict but work to compliment each other. The organ helps to fill in the missing woodwind texture of the orchestra.  The opening reappears as a recapitulation, as there isn't a solid sense of a separate development section of the themes, but they are varied in the recapitulation. A short coda winds down the music with a flourish.

II.  Andante - Rheinberger breaks with the traditional scheme of three-movement concertos by having two slow movements back-to-back. The movement begins with the solo organ, but the full compliment of strings soon join the organ. An agitated section of music that includes the trumpets follows. The serene mood returns with the opening organ solo as the strings and organ trade off playing and commenting on the theme until the movement gently winds down.

III. Con moto - The tempo of the concerto finally speeds up as sharp chords are played in the orchestra. The organ enters, the chords repeat along with the organ entrance. This movement also is chock full of themes that are treated by orchestra and organ in ways unique to Rheinberger.  The accented chords of the beginning of the movement reappear as does the organ. Rheinberger varies themes somewhat as the music moves towards the conclusion. Trumpets act as an accent, the organ is mellow and anxious in turn. The chords appear once more as the organ and strings pull out all the stops for a grand ending.

Rheinberger was a conservative composer in the mold of Brahms, which was part of the reason his music fell into neglect after his death, but his music began to be noticed by more than just organists later in the 20th century. The late E.Power Biggs (1906 - 1977) almost single handedly revived the two organ concertos when he recorded them in the early 1970's. His recording was my first exposure to Rheinberger, and the organ concertos have been a favorite ever since.

Dvořák - Piano Concerto In G Minor

Out of the three concertos Dvořák wrote for solo instruments, one each for violin, cello and piano, it is the piano concerto that is least well known.  The piano concerto has fine melodies and is well crafted in all but the part for solo piano. At least that was the rap against it early on.  Dvořák's writing for the piano was called clumsy, ineffective, and unpianistic among other complaints. Once the piece got a bad reputation, it was pretty much neglected after its premiere in 1878 by the pianist who requested that Dvořák write a piano concerto, Karel Slavkovský.

A few years after Dvořák's death the Czech teacher and pianist Vilém Kurz tried to help the piece become part of the repertoire by revising the piano part (he left the orchestral part untouched). Sadly, this revision didn't endear the work to pianists much more than the original had. It wasn't until later in the 20th century when the piece came to be played occassionally. The concerto has since been published in score with both the original and Kurz's revision, giving the pianist their choice. No story of the concerto would be complete without mentioning the Czech pianist Rudolf Firkušný, who practically single handedly kept the work before the public for many years. Firkušný was a student of Kurz, and played the revision for many years, but later in his career he began playing the original version.

Vilem Kurz

Perhaps the biggest problem soloists have with the concerto is the lack of pianistic fireworks. There are two main styles of concerto; those that are vehicles for virtuoso display from the soloist who is just as much an adversary of the orchestra as a partner, and those that are more like a symphony for piano and orchestra where the virtuosity for the soloist is not so obvious. Dvořák's concerto is definitely one of the latter, and he knew it.  There are plenty of examples of both kinds of concerto in the repertoire, and Dvořák's is heard more often than it used to be.

The concerto is in three movements:

I. Allegro agitato - The first and main theme of the movement is heard straight away, a theme that is pure Dvořák (but showing a little influence of his friend Brahms' music also). The other two themes of the movement have more of a pastoral or folk song feeling.  The first theme reappears and leads to the first entrance of the piano. The piano and orchestra expand the first theme and the other two themes as well.  The first theme appears in the minor to begin the development section which concentrates on the first theme as a whole and in parts of it. All three themes are finally recapitulated and it is the first theme that leads to the cadenza.  The first theme also dominates the coda to the movement and leads to the end of it.

II. Andante sostenuto - The horn is prominent along with the piano in a finely crafted movement.

III. Allegro con fuoco - Dvořák seldom used authentic Czech folk music in his compositions, but he most certainly knew how to compose themes with the flavor of the real thing.  There are three themes in this movement that in form is a hybrid between sonata form and rondo. The first theme has a strong rhythmic element as does the second theme. The third theme is in contrast with the others as it is more laid back.

There is certainly more than one approach to writing a piano concerto. The approach that Dvořák used in this concerto shouldn't work against it as composers as diverse as Litolff, Liszt, and Brahms wrote concertos that were symphonies for piano and orchestra disguised as concertos. Perhaps the times in which Dvořák wrote the work, specifically in reference to the prejudice against Czech composers In Germany, played a part in the early neglect of this concerto. Thankfully, the concerto has overcome this neglect and is played and recorded more often, giving the listener a chance to hear and appreciate this work.