Day 18: Bach, Italian Concerto

Day 18: Bach, Italian Concerto

Although this is called a concerto, it’s actually a piece for unaccompanied harpsichord, although it is in 3 movements – fast-slow-fast – as would be a concerto of the time. Now, according to the CD sleeve, what makes this more of a concerto is that it uses a two-manual harpsichord, which apparently means that the two different manuals have different tone qualities, so the one can sound rather like an orchestral tutti, and the other like the soloists! My words, so they probably don’t make much sense!

This was a piece we studied for O level – around about the time that J.S.Bach was composing! Though I am not a very good pianist, I did have a go at this on the piano, and managed to play the first movement, albeit at about half the speed it is supposed to go! In reality, the first movements goes at breakneck speed! This is beautifully played on my CD which has Wanda Landowska playing the harpsichord; she was originally from Warsaw, but she taught in Berlin and later settled in Paris. She made some very early recordings of Bach harpsichord works, including the Goldberg Variations. The only other thing I know about her is that someone took an X-ray of her hands and hung it as a work of art.