Program Notes, ©2012 Lori Newman

Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto No. 7 in g minor, BWV 1058 (1738)

Bach’s job description was wide and varied during his time at Leipzig. Part of his charge was to conduct the Collegium musicum, a small group that put on a series of public concerts. The harpsichord as solo instrument was such a new phenomenon that a newspaper announcement was printed advertising the Collegium musicum concert and singing praises for the new harpsichord. “It will begin with a fine concert, to be continued weekly, therein a new harpsichord, the like of which has never been heard in these parts before; and the friends of music as well as virtuosos are requested to attend.”

Bach composed the g minor concerto for the above referenced concert by adapting it from his Violin Concerto in A Minor (probably written while he was in Köthen). The concerto is written in the typical fast-slow-fast format. The g minor is unique in that it does not merely treat the soloist and the orchestra as opposing forces; instead, material can be introduced by either the soloist or the orchestra, and then developed and varied by the other.