JS Bach - Italian Concerto BWV 971 HN160

Bach’s Italian Concerto, BWV 971, was published in 1735 as part of Clavier-Übung II. The work imitates the contrasts of an Italian concerto using the two-manual keyboard, including the alternating forte and piano sections. This Henle edition is based on the first printed edition corrected by Bach.

 The “Concerto” unmistakably imitates an Italian solo concerto, using only the means of the harpsichord. Tutti and solo passages can be heard as well as the dynamic gradations of the sound layers, which Bach explicitly marked with piano and forte. Energetic outer movements frame an Andante, in which a melancholy cantilena unfolds over unadorned chords. For the revision of this Bach classic, editor Ullrich Scheideler also evaluated, in addition to the prints, early manuscript copies which allowed interesting conclusions about the lost autograph.

I. Allegro
II. Andante
III. Presto