Concerto for three harpsichords in D minor
BWV 1063 performed by Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Siebe Henstra, Menno van Delft and the Netherlands Bach Society
Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Amsterdam
Behind the music
Story
Story
Extra videos
Extra videos
Credits
Credits
Playing with timbres
A trill for three right hands: of course that can never be exactly together
In this Concerto in D minor, Bach plays with monophony and polyphony. It is a solo concerto, but then for three harpsichords. Sometimes all the instruments play the same melody, but then they go off on their own again. And even when they follow their own path, there are still always lines played by two, three or four hands together. When the harpsichordists are actually all playing something different, their instruments still sound like one big combined instrument.
In the middle movement, Lars Ulrik Mortensen has the harpsichordists switch to their lute register, which makes their instruments sound like lutes or mandolins. Combined with the rippling tempo prescribed by Bach (alla siciliana), they bring to mind strumming gondoliers. According to the eighteenth-century music theorist Johann Mattheson, a siciliana was thus a song ‘à la barquerole’ (i.e. boat music). Here, too, Bach plays with timbre. In the chorus, the harpsichordists all play exactly the same, yet you still hear that they are three instruments and not just one.
Bach would not be Bach if there was no hint of a fugue anywhere, and this expectation is met in the final movement. Independence is a main characteristic of a fugue. And indeed it is only in this final section that the second and third harpsichordists really get their own solo. However, in the closing bars of the concerto, Bach still makes the three musicians play exactly the same notes again. Almost in jest, there is even one long trill for the three right hands simultaneously – which of course can never be exactly together.
- BWV
- 1063
- Title
- Concerto for three harpsichords in D minor
- Instrument
- harpsichord
- Genre
- harpsichord works, orchestral works
- Year
- around 1735-1745
- City
- Leipzig
- Special notes
- This was probably Bach's arrangement of an earlier concerto, although we do not know exactly which instrument it was written for.
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 8 February 2019
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- Recording date
- 15 October 2017
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- Location
- Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Amsterdam
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- Harpsichord 1
- Bruce Kennedy, 1989 after Michael Mietke
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- Harpsichord 2
- Geert Karman after J.H. Gräbner, 1774
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- Harpsichord 3
- Knud Kauffman, 1977 after Hildebrandt
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- Direction
- Lars Ulrik Mortensen
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- Harpsichordists
- Lars Ulrik Mortensen (1), Siebe Henstra (2), Menno van Delft (3)
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- Violin 1
- Shunske Sato
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- Violin 2
- Anneke van der Haaften
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- Viola
- Deirdre Dowling
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- Cello
- Lucia Swarts
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- Double bass
- James Munro
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- Director
- Lucas van Woerkum
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- Assistant director
- Stijn Berkhouwer
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Bastiaan Kuijt, Pim van der Lee
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- Music edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Jochem Timmerman, Martin Struijf, Thijs Struick
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- Lights
- Zen Bloot
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- Set technique
- Dennis Hoek
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- Data handling
- Jesper Blok
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- Project manager nep
- Peter Ribbens
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- Interview
- Onno van Ameijde, Marloes Biermans
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- Producer concert
- Marco Meijdam
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- Producer film
- Jessie Verbrugh
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