I will probably move this stuff to a new page JsBach.
August 22, 2003 -- 10AM PDT -- DanKuehner
Hi Raymond!
Yesterday I was driving to work listening to the Brandenburg Concerto #5 (all-digital recording on the Archiv label, by the English Concert, with Trevor Pinnock conducting from the harpsichord). In the latter half of the overture, there is an amazing solo harpsichord passage -- it builds in tempo, mechanical complexity, and interwoven-ness constantly to a frenetic point that is, to me, beyond virtuosity. The harpshichord seems to become a run-away train about to jump the rails, but decelerates at the last instant as the rest of the orchestra comes in for the final few measures of the movement. Every time I listen to this I'm in awe, and yesterday morning I was frankly left breathless and moved to tears. I just cannot imagine how all this sound can be generated with such speed and precision by only two hands. But I think it's really happening from one keyboard, because although there are at times several voices going simultaneously, I don't think there are two separate harpsichords.
Do you know this passage? Do you know anything about it to enlighten me? How many keyboards? How many hands?
Answer to my mystery correspondent
I vaguely remembered the passage to which you refer. I refreshed my memory this morning by listening to the Brandenburg Concerto #5 from my Bach2000Set. Let me quote a section from Malcolm Boyd's J.S. Bach (Oxford Composer Companions) (p.72):
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The sense of struggle soon focuses on the harpsichord, which becomes increasingly frenetic. With various starts and stops, the instrument moves from its traditional role as continuo, to an obbligato role still somewhat overshadowed by the flute and solo violin, to an obbligato overshadowing the concertino, to a role completely overwhelming the tutti, and finally to one which, during the first section of its famous extended episode (often referred to as a CADENZA), in effect beomes the ensemble. This extraordinarily long episode (which Bach labelled simply 'solo senza stromenti') features extreme departures from the rhythmic and harmonic conventions of concerto style. Some listeners are disturbed by a sense that the closing ritornello is not entirely successful in containing this remarkable outburst.
