# Looking for a performance of BWV 1052a?



## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

So, the first manuscript of Bach's BWV 1052 (D Minor) Concerto was in the hand of CPE Bach 1052a. I've read that the keyboard part was also CPE Bach's transcription (of a part originally for violin for example). So, the original keyboard parts were "composed" by CPE Bach. Bach later rewrote/corrected his son's keyboard transcription.

I've also read that Moscheles added a flute, two clarinets, bassoons and horns for a transcription of his own.

Do any of you know whether recordings of these two pieces have ever been made? I've searched but found nothing with any certainty.


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

Wikipedia has a slightly different explanation of the possible origins of BWV 1052a:

>>>Like the other harpsichord concertos, BWV 1052 is generally believed to be a transcription of a lost concerto composed in Cöthen or Weimar. Beginning with Wilhelm Rust and Philipp Spitta, many scholars suggested that the original melody instrument was probably the violin, because of the many violinistic figurations in the solo part-string-crossing, open string techniques-all highly virtuosic. Williams (2016) has speculated that the copies of the orchestral parts made in 1734 (BWV 1052a) might have been used for a performance of the concerto with Carl Philipp Emanuel as soloist. There have been several reconstructions of the violin concerto; Ferdinand David made one in 1873; Robert Reitz in 1917; and Wilfried Fischer prepared one for Volume VII/7 of the Neue Bach Ausgabe in 1970 based on BWV 1052. In 1976, in order to resolve playability problems in Fischer's reconstruction, Werner Breig suggested amendments based on the obbligato organ part in the cantatas and BWV 1052a. The conjecture about the violin concerto original was not accepted by Christoph Wolff, nor by Peter Wollny [scores]. In the twenty-first century, Bach scholarship has moved away from any consensus regarding a violin original. In 2016, for example, two leading Bach scholars, Christoph Wolff and Gregory Butler, both published independently conducted research that led each to conclude that the original form of BWV 1052 was an organ concerto.<<<


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

Ras said:


> Wikipedia has a slightly different explanation of the possible origins of BWV 1052a


Yeah, I saw that. In the meantime, I downloaded a manuscript score of 1052a (ISMLP) last night and am trying it out at the piano. I'm just an amateur pianist but I can almost sight read 1052a. It's very easy. The left hand accompaniment is just what you would expect from CPE if he were transcribing a piece that was originally for violin (or oboe or whatnot)---lots and lots of repeated notes in the left hand and sometime just a quarter note for each downbeat, whereas JS gives the left hand an equal part. 1052a is much, much easier to play if you're an amateur like me. The left hand just plunks along, no eighth note runs or anything like that.

If 1052a is an original transcription of a violin concerto, CPE's left hand plunking makes a lot of sense. JS would never, ever have written a keyboard part like this. So, on that score, if Wolff or Wollny are suggesting that 1052a reflects a JS Bach original (transcribed by CPE) for organ, then they're both crackpots. But I doubt that's what they're suggesting. I haven't read their research.


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## Ras (Oct 6, 2017)

Here is a version for organ recorded by Andre Isoir:






Peter Hurford recorded it too. Presto Classical has it listed:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8050299--js-bach-organ-concertos


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