вЂModernвЂ™-instrument performances include the concertos which survive in versions for solo violin вЂ“ though Bach probably wrote them originally with the harpsichord in mind вЂ“ in which Thomas Zehetmair is both soloist and director of the Amsterdam Bach Soloists with his characteristically bold and incisive sound and interpretative insight. The performances here are all historically informed in style, if not all played on instruments either from or closely modelled on those used in BachвЂ™s time. All this music is contained within this indispensable 9CD set. Bach himself transcribed several of VivaldiвЂ™s concertos, both for solo keyboard and for chamber groupings вЂ“ most famously the B minor concerto, originally with four solo violin parts, which Bach thrillingly amplified for four harpsichords. Vivaldi set the standard for the shape, the style and the virtuosity of what we understand today as the concerto form, perfected in BachвЂ™s own output in the D minor harpsichord concerto, BWV1052. The concertos of Antonio Vivaldi swept across Europe from 1711 onwards with the publication of his Op.3 set, вЂLвЂ™Estro ArmonicoвЂ™. Bach familiarised himself with the early Italian instrumental concerto tradition, produced by composers such as Albinoni and Torelli, with his characteristic thoroughness even before producing the Brandenburg concertos which he wrote while Kapellmeister in Weimar, in vain hope of preferment to a more glamorous posting to the court of the eponymous Margrave in Berlin. Bach used the word вЂconcertoвЂ™ to refer to many of his church cantatas (the ones that he did not call, simply, вЂStГјckвЂ™, or вЂpieceвЂ™), the wordвЂ™s Italian etymology usually denotes an ensemble work in which a particular element comes to the fore.

Bach harpsichord concertos complete