Concerto for two harpsichords in c, BWV 1060

In the late 18th and 19th centuries, the concerto came to be a form of musical drama, pitting the soloist against the orchestra in a battle for control of the tonal unfolding. Audiences and composers generally preferred the tension between the one and the many rather than the Baroque tradition of concerto grosso, in which a small group of soloists—note the plural—periodically emerge from and recede back into the full orchestra. Although some composers, e.g. Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms, continued to create concertos for multiple soloists, these are certainly the exception to the rule. Ensemble concertos were essentially a thing of the past by the time Mozart died. For Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), composing concertos between roughly 1720 and 1745, all options were still on the table. As we have had the pleasure to experience in previous SMF seasons, Bach wrote numerous concertos for one, two, three, and even more soloists, usually harpsichordists.
BWV 1060, for two harpsichords and string orchestra, ranks among the more important of his fourteen works in the genre of keyboard concerto. Beginning perhaps in Weimar (1708-17) but taking deeper root during his tenures in Cöthen (1717-23) and Leipzig (1723-50), Bach absorbed the rising influence of the Italian instrumental concerto style and infused it with what mattered most to him: polyphony, motivic elaboration and technical brilliance. BWV 1060 may have been written as early as 1730, making it one of Bach’s first original keyboard concertos. Some scholars believe it stems from a lost double concerto, possibly involving violins as the solo instruments, though no firm evidence is available to decide the matter. In the end, it seems to matter little for Bach’s melodic style is so amenable to string or keyboard playing, supported as it is by rich chord structure underneath. The outer movements come on passionately; the finale, in particular, is a wonderfully agile motive. By contrast, the middle movement stays more intimate by using a simple harpsichord theme over pizzicato strings.

(c) Jason Stell