W.F. Bach - Harpsichord Concerto In E Minor F.43

Being the eldest son of J.S. Bach no doubt had its advantages. Wilhelm Friedemann had the benefit of one of the greatest musicians of all time as his personal teacher. Father Bach took a very personal interest in the child's musical education and created a graded course of keyboard and composition instruction with the Clavier-Büchlein vor Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.  Not only did Johann write the first volume of The Well Tempered Clavier for his eldest son, but many other pieces as well.  His father's instruction served Wilhelm well as he was acknowledged as one of the great keyboardists and improvisers of his time.

But being the eldest son of J.S. Bach had  its down sides also. Much was given to him, but much was expected. While his father's reputation as a composer came long after he died, his reputation as an organist and harpsichordist was remembered long after his death, a legacy the younger Bach may have had trouble coping with. Trying to surpass (let alone equal) his father's reputation may have been one of the reasons Wilhelm never really did very well for himself.  He never stayed in one place too long, and early biographers accused him of being hard to get along with and aloof, perhaps with good cause, but there is so little known about his life that it is not possible to be sure.  When his father died J. S. Bach's compositions were divided up between the four remaining sons that were musicians, with W.F. selling a great number of them to help pay off the debt he was under. W.F. was also not above claiming some of his father's compositions as his own. It isn't known how many of his father's works were lost because of his eldest son's shenanigans, all of which probably helped to bring about the poor opinion some scholars had of him early on.

His compositions were once considered bad  imitations of his father's, but modern scholarship has changed the opinion of his importance. He is now considered to be a composer that wrote during the transition from the Baroque age to the Classical age, in the gallante style of the times, and some music more serious in nature.  W.F. wasn't much better at tending to his own compositions as  those of his father. There is no way of knowing how many of his works are lost.

The Harpsichord Concerto In E Minor was written about 1767, roughly the same time as Haydn wrote his 35th Symphony, Mozart was 11 years old and already an accomplished composer, and Georg Philippe Telemann died in Hamburg at the age of 86 (and his godson C.P.E. Bach took over Telemann's position of musical director of Hamburg the same year).  The work is written for strings, continuo and solo harpsichord and is in three movements:

I.  Allegretto - The concerto opens with a robust theme for strings. After this is played through the soloist enters with its own theme. The rest of the movement involves these two themes as they are replayed and varied in an early version of sonata form, which W.F. Bach used in his compositions. There is also a feeling of Sturm und Drang in this first movement, and W.F. has recently been acknowledged as one of the earliest composers that used this stylistic trend. After the two themes have been thoroughly explored, there is a cadenza for soloist. After the cadenza, the first theme is repeated by the strings and the movement ends.

II.  Adagio -  The strings begin the movement, after which the soloist enters. The harpsichord steadily plays rather benign music, with the strings providing the seasoning of the movement by sudden outbursts. There is an extended section for the soloist without strings, after which the strings appear and play the thematic material while the harpsichord plays a commentary, and the movement ends with one last sigh.

III. Allegro assai -  The music moves back to the minor as the strings begin the movement by playing another robust theme. The soloist enters with commentary on the theme while the strings interrupt with the biting motives of the opening. And so the movement goes until the soloist plays a short solo, and the strings return to the robust theme of the beginning.

Dvořák - Violin Concerto In A Minor

Antonín Dvořák composed only three concertos for solo instrument and orchestra. The first was the Piano Concerto In G Minor composed in 1876, a work that has taken many years for any kind of regularity of performance and it is still rare to hear the work in concert. The last concerto was the Cello Concerto In B Minor written in 1894, the most popular of all three concertos. In between was the Violin Concerto In A Minor, a work that was finished in its first version in 1879.

Dvořák had met the violinist Joseph Joachim in early 1879 through their mutual friend Johannes Brahms. Joachim had played Dvořák's chamber music and commissioned him to write a concerto for violin.  Dvořák busied himself with the work and took the initial sketches of the concerto with him to Berlin when he visited Joachim. The violinist suggested some changes in the work, and Dvořák sent Joachim the revised work in November of 1879. No other correspondence between the two survives, but Dvořák was once again in Berlin in April 1880 and Joachim gave him his opinion of the concerto. Once again, Dvořák took Joachim's criticisms to heart and revised the work, which he sent to Joachim in late May of 1880.

It wasn't until 1882 that Joachim sent Dvořák a letter requesting more revisions and technical changes to the solo part to make it more performable. Joachim invited Dvořák once more to Berlin for a consultation, where in September of 1882 the composer and violinist played through the work. According to Dvořák:

I played the violin concerto with Joachim twice. He liked it very much, and Mr Keller, who was present as well, was delighted with it. I was very glad that the matter has finally been sorted out. The issue of revision lay at Joachim’s door for a full two years!! He very kindly revised the violin part himself; I just have to change something in the Finale and refine the instrumentation in a number of places.

Joseph Joachim

But that wasn't the end of the matter.  The Mr. Keller mentioned in the above quote was the musical advisor for Dvořák's publisher Simrock, and he suggested that changes be made to the structure of the concerto as well as advising cuts be made. Dvořák went along with some of the cuts but refused to change the structure of the concerto. In the end his publisher relented and published the score.

The premiere of the concerto took place in Prague in October of 1883, four years after Joachim had first encouraged Dvořák to write it, and the soloist at the premiere was not Joachim but František Ondříček, a young Czech violin virtuoso, who worked with the composer for two months on the work. And despite Joachim's interest, consultation and suggestions for the work, he never performed the piece.

The concerto is in three movements:

I. Allegro ma non troppo - The orchestra plays a short, powerful introduction, after which the soloist plays the first theme.  The orchestra modulates and repeats a few bars of the introduction before the soloist continues the first theme. The orchestra comments on the theme and expands it with different material until the violin again states the theme and begins to develop it. The soloist then plays the second theme in the key of C major, the parallel major key to the home key of A minor. This theme is also expanded upon, until hints of the first theme lead to the first theme's full return. There is then a short section that cuts off the theme and leads directly to the second movement. Dvořák essentially does away with the traditional sonata form of exposition, development, recapitulation by altering the exposition section and doing away with the development and recapitulation sections altogether and segues into the slow movement. This is one of the structural issues that Mr. Keller tried to change as he wanted the first and second movements to be separate.

II. Adagio ma non troppo - Written in F major, the first theme is played by the soloist and dominates  the movement. Dvořák writes music of a vocal quality for the soloist and the movement gives needed contrast from the passionate first movement. There is a more dramatic second theme that appears a few times, but it's interruptions are brief and are gently brushed aside by the return and expansion of the first theme. Dvořák's gift for melody shines in this movement that is relatively long but never lacking in interest or beauty, so much so that this movement was sometimes played without the first and last movements as a stand-alone piece. As the end approaches, horns play a fragment of the theme as an accompaniment to the soloist.

III. Finale: Allegro giocoso ma non troppo -  The movement is in A major and begins immediately with the main theme which sounds like something Mendelssohn may have written if he had been a Czech. Dvořák's fondness for the rhythms of his native dance the furiant is played throughout with tripping syncopations.  and 3 versus 2 cross rhythms characteristic of Czech folk music.  A contrasting section takes on a 2/4 time signature and a minor key as a dumka, another Czech folk dance, is played that is characterized by a very interesting part for soloist played over a 3 versus 2 cross rhythm. After the dumka plays out, the main theme reappears and takes the concerto to its conclusion.

Arensky - Piano Concerto In F Minor

Anton Arensky wrote his piano concerto when he was a 20 year old student in his final year at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1881.  He was taught composition by Rimsky-Korsakov and upon graduating he took a position as professor of harmony and counterpoint at the Moscow Conservatory where he taught Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. He returned to St. Petersburg after a few years as director of the Imperial Chapel. He retired from there after six years.

His composing became sporadic in his last few years as he suffered from tuberculosis that was aggravated by his addiction to alcohol and gambling. His old teach Rimsky-Korsakov said this about his student:

In his youth Arensky did not escape some influence from me; later the influence came from Tchaikovsky. He will quickly be forgotten.

Arensky's music is not altogether forgotten, but the piano concerto comes close as it is seldom performed. It is in three movements:

I. Allegro maestoso -  The orchestra begins the movement with a loud statement followed immediately by the soloist. After the preliminaries the piano states the first theme, a not overly complicated theme but one suitable for the different guises it wears.  There are other short snatches of material that lead up to the lyrical second main theme played by the piano. The tone of the second theme changes from lyrical to strong and forthright, and after a short exchange between piano and orchestra the development section begins. The second theme appears at the end of the development and leads to a short cadenza. Both themes are repeated in the recapitulation, and a short coda ends the movement.

II. Andante con moto -  An introduction leads to the poetic main theme played by the piano.  A middle section is more dramatic and passionate, and after flourishes by the piano the poetic theme returns. The movement ends gently.

III. Scherzo - Finale: Allegro -  Arensky had a liking for odd time signatures, and he uses 5/4 time in this movement. There are two main themes in this sonata form movement, but Arensky doesn't develop them to any great extent. They show up near the end of the movement and the concerto ends with a simple cadence.

While he is more well known forhis chamber music, especially the Piano Trio No. 1, Arensky's piano concerto is an engaging work that mirrors the composers that inspired it, mainly Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and a smidgen of Grieg. It doesn't plumb the depths of emotion but it is well written, especially for a 20 year old student.

Vivaldi - Oboe Concerto In A Minor RV 461

Despite being one of the few Baroque composers that had an international reputation during his lifetime, Antonio Vivaldi's music was hardly known by anyone outside of musicologists and scholars until the 20th century.  Vivaldi had received commissions for music from European royalty and had twelve volumes of works published. These published works, such as the opus 3 set of violin concertos titled L'Estro Armonico published in 1711 helped establish his international career and influenced composers such as J.S. Bach.  Vivaldi ceased publishing his works strictly for monetary reasons. He made more money from handwritten copies than the printed ones.

Towards the end of his life his instrumental music had gone out of style in his native Venice. He concentrated on opera and traveled to Vienna in hopes of staging them, but the patron he counted on for a living until his operas could be performed died. Vivaldi was destitute when he died in Vienna at the age of 63 in 1741, and his music was promptly forgotten.

Vivaldi was almost unknown from his death in 1741 until 1926 when a boarding school run by Salesian Fathers in Piedmont, Italy discovered a large collection of music manuscripts in their archives. It was decided to sell the manuscripts to aid the school, and they called upon the National Library in Turin to determine their worth. A scholar at the University Of Turin asked for the manuscripts to be sent to him for inspection, the scholar determined that they were manuscripts of Vivaldi's music.

It took many years of work and extended research to catalog the manuscripts as well as track down some of the missing pages, with the work being delayed by the Second World War. But at the end of the war Vivaldi's music was being printed in a new edition that was distributed throughout the music loving world, and the Vivaldi revival had begun and research is still going on to identify and discover more of his music.

While many of Vivaldi's over 500 concertos were for violin, he also wrote for many different instruments and instrument combinations. His concertos for wind instruments are notable, and he wrote more than twenty for solo oboe. The oboe was a popular instrument in the Baroque era as it was an instrument used in the orchestras of Bach and Handel as well as in concertos.

The date of composition isn't known for the Oboe Concerto RV 461.  It is in three movements:

I. Allegro non molto - Vivaldi begins with the strings playing the initial statement. The oboe plays between statements of the ritornello. This concerto is slightly different in that the ritornello played by the strings is somewhat shorter than usual while the oboes solos are slightly longer.

II. Larghetto - The slow movements of Vivaldi's concertos vary in tempo and length. This slow movement is in a major key, short in length and provides a slight contrast to the two outer movements.

III. Allegro -  The music returns to A minor and the tempo quickens as oboe and strings play off one another.

Wieniawski - Légende For Violin And Orchestra

Henryk Wieniawski was one of the most famous of the 19th century violin virtuosos, and like many virtuosos of the time he composed music for his own use. While he spent some years as a teacher, Wieniawski lived the life of a traveling virtuoso for most of his life, which was not the most conducive style of life for composing as he has only 24 opus numbers to his credit, but some of those pieces are staples of the literature for the violin.

He composed his Légende For Violin And Orchestra in Leipzig before he accepted an invitation from Anton Rubinstein to come to St. Petersburg to perform and teach. The story behind the composition is a romantic one. Wieniawski wanted to marry Isabella Hampton, but her parents did not think marrying a traveling musician would be good for their daughter and made their disapproval known. Isabella's parents heard Wieniawski play the piece in concert and as a result the beauty and heart-felt emotion of the piece changed their minds. Wieniawski and Isabella were married in 1860 with the parent's blessing.

The work is in ternary form with the first section in the key of G minor. Playing andante, two bassoons begin the work in a mood of tense motion, playing in tandem a 6th apart.  The soloist enters and plays a melancholy theme while the orchestra lightly accompanies with fragments of the tense motive first played by the bassoons. The bassoons return and the first section repeats itself until the soloist takes up the tense motion of the bassoons which leads to the second section of the work. This middle section is in two beats to the bar, the key changes to G major and the tempo changes to allegro moderato.  The mood of the music has changed as the orchestra plays in a march-like rhythm while the soloist outlines a new theme in double stops and chords. This new theme continues until it reaches a climax in the orchestra. After a chromatic downward scale for the soloist and short transitional material, the music reverts back to three in a bar, G minor and andante tempo as the first section is repeated.  The soloist once again plays the tense motive of the bassoons which leads to the orchestra playing a soft accompaniment while the soloist plays gentle arpeggios. Everything slows as the soloist reaches a G high in the stratosphere of the violin's range, and the music softly ends.

Draeseke - Piano Concerto In E-flat Major

While Felix Draeseke was a student at the Leipzig Conservatory his ardent admiration of the music of Richard Wagner shook up the conservative establishment of the school. He ended up leaving the conservatory in 1855 and in 1857 wrote essays on the symphonic poems of Franz Liszt. Draeseke defended Liszt's music with fervor and courage, but his was not merely an empty advocacy. He addressed many of the charges against Liszt directly with the knowledge and ability that a modern musicologist would. His essays about Liszt and his music are some of the most definitive ones ever written until the 20th century. Liszt met him, took an interest in his music and expressed his gratitude for the essays. They remained friends until Liszt's death in 1886.

Draeseke's admiration for Wagner evidently was not reciprocated by Wagner, who detested Draeseke's music. Wagner did spend some time with Draeseke (at the request of Liszt) and came to like him as a man while still disliking his music. After Draeseke moved to Dresden in 1876 he slowly lost interest in the New Music of Wagner. Before that he had already disapproved strongly to Wagner the man after Wagner and Liszt's daughter Cosima began living together (she was still married to Hans von Bülow at the time).  Draeseke  gradually became more conservative while in Dresden, so much so that after Liszt heard some of his current compositions remarked that "It seems our lion has turned into a rabbit." His only piano concerto was written in 1885-1886. It was premiered in June of 1886 with Liszt attending. It was the last time the two friends would meet as Liszt died six weeks later.

The concerto has the traditional three movement structure:

I. Allegro moderato -  The main theme of the movement is played straight away by the orchestra. The soloist interrupts the theme with octave runs up the keyboard. The soloist then plays a short cadenza. The theme returns in the orchestra, as well as the soloist's octave runs followed by another short cadenza. This theme accounts for much of the movement's material, as Draeseke uses Liszt's thematic transformation technique.  Orchestra and soloist explore the theme at length until a brilliant coda ends the movement.

II. Adagio -  The piano plays an extended solo that begins with a long theme that resembles a hymn. An interlude follows for muted strings. The piano then begins a set of variations on the hymn theme as the cellos and double basses add a very subtle accompaniment. The second variation is marked scherzando as cellos and basses play pizzicato along with occasional coloring by the woodwinds. The third variation has the orchestra play the theme with interrupting comments by the soloist. There is then a section for soloist and orchestra that is more of an interlude than a variation which leads to an extended interlude for solo piano. This leads to the next variation proper of the theme, again by the piano playing solo. The orchestra enters and continues playing this variation as the piano plays a rippling accompaniment. The piano plays a short lead in to the next variation where Draeseke shows his orchestrating skill and feeling for tonal color as he  divides first and second violins and has them play the theme and light contrapuntal accompaniment while the piano plays pianissimo three note figures high in the piano's register. This variation proceeds with magical effect until the piano plays a short cadenza that leads to the peaceful close of the movement. 

III. Allegro molto vivace -  A loud, powerful outburst from the orchestra and soloist begins the final movement. After the piano plays a short solo, the orchestra joins the piano in the initial statement of the main theme. The second theme that maintains the dance-like atmosphere is heard in the piano and taken up by the orchestra. These two themes also adhere to the thematic transformation technique as they are thoroughly explored in the movement. The feeling of constant movement, sometimes to the point of  massive rushing, is finally resolved in a brilliant ending that is drenched in the home key of E-flat major.

Draeseke's music was popular during his lifetime and at one point he was held as an equal to Brahms as a symphonist.  He composed for the rest of his life. He had ongoing serious ear infections for most of his life and spent the last two years of his life almost totally deaf. He died in 1913 at the age of 77.

Bach - Violin Concerto In E Major BWV 1042

Johann Sebastian Bach spent 6 years as Kapellmeister at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, which was a small town in Northern Germany. Despite the small backwater location, Bach's employer was a music lover of the first order who collected first-rate musicians for his band. The prince was mostly interested in secular music so many of Bach's instrumental works may have been written while he was there.

Bach was an eternal student and studied the works of many different composers by copying their works out for his own use. It was a method he had used since he was a child and copied out other composer's music by moonlight from a book of his brothers. Bach got in hot water for the deed as his brother had forbade him access to the book, but Bach's curiosity trumped his brother's orders.Bach had been an admirer of Vivaldi's music before he went to Cöthen, but while he was there he wrote concertos in the Italian model of three movements versus the old concerto grosso form of four movements.

There are only two concertos for violin that can be authenticated, and one concerto for two violins. Scholars believe he wrote more than that, and that most of his harpsichord concertos were arrangements of what were originally written as violin concertos.  There is no positive indication that Bach himself played his violin concertos as soloist, but it is known that he could play the violin, as his son C.P.E. Bach wrote:

As the greatest expert and judge of harmony, he liked best to play the viola, with appropriate loudness and softness. In his youth, and until the approach of old age, he played the violin cleanly and penetratingly, and thus kept the orchestra in better order than he could have done with the harpsichord. He understood to perfection the possibilities of all stringed instruments.

 Violin Concerto In  E Major BWV was composed sometime between 1721-1723 and is in three movements:

I. Allegro - Bach begins the work by drenching the music in E major, as the first measure has each of its

Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen

three beats play the notes of the E major triad.  Bach has the soloist play almost continually, either playing the same notes as the first violins or as soloist. Bach follows the ritornello form of a Vivaldi concerto in general, but Bach has a few surprises for the listener. Many time a concerto movement in ritornello form has the tutti and soloist alternate in playing material, but Bach interlaces the two as he expands the material heard at the beginning. After the material has been worked out in a type of development section, there is a short cadenza for the soloist, after which the entire first section of the movement is repeated, thus making the first movement a hybrid form of  da capo aria and ritornello.

II. Adagio - Written in C-sharp minor, the main theme is first heard in the bass at the beginning and continues throughout the movement save for a few short sections. The theme doesn't leave the bass, but there are fragments of it that appear in the solo part.  The music of the solo violin slowly floats its music over the accompaniment in a most beautiful aria.

III. Allegro assai -  The final movement has Bach write in another hybrid type of form that contains elements of ritornello and rondo form. The theme remains in E major and is repeated by the orchestra between contrasting episodes for the soloist.