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BACH – Double Concerto in C minor, BWV 1060 – TWO SOLO CELLOS AND STRING ORCHESTRA (also includes piano reduction)

Other Identification:
This concerto for oboe, violín and orchestra by Johann Sebastian Bach was written in 1736, yet not published until about 1920. How is this possible?! Well, this very music was arranged by composer himself as the Concerto for 2 Harpsichords in C minor, BWV 1060. However, the original ‘creation’ of his was lost.

So, not surprisingly, there were attempts by Bach experts to reconstructed the “original” version based on the later arrangement for 2 harpsichords. Wilfried Fischer’s reconstruction first appeared in 1970 and is generally used today, though there is an earlier one by Max Seiffert from 1920 (Seiffert’s reconstruction has the same number of bars for mvts, 1 and 2 but the 3rd movement is 4 bars less, so this is discounted).

Movements or sections:
In David Johnstone’s preparation for TWO SOLO CELLOS we therefore use the Fischer base of movements:

I – Allegro (110 bars)
II – Adagio (37 bars)
III – Allegro (178 bars)

Instrumentation: TWO SOLO CELLOS AND STRING ORCHESTRA
Also a piano reduction for rehearsals
Prepared by David Johnstone / A big thank you to the fine Navarre-Basque cellist JAVIER NAVASCUÉS ALLÜE for the impeccable computer musical edition of the solo parts.

The music is in SIX PDFs:
PDF 1 – Both cello soloist parts prepared as duo study score
PDF 2 – Cello Soloist 1
PDF 3 – Cello Soloist 2
PDF 4 – All individual string instrument orchestral parts
PDF 5 – Original conductor score
PDF 6 – Piano Reduction

Approximate difficulty: SOLOISTS – Difficult
For many years cellists have enjoyed the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto in G Minor, and the Handel Sonata in G minor featuring 2 cellos is also fairly well known (it was a favourite of Paul Tortelier, playing with his wife Maude!). Of course, original double concertos do exist; those of Klengel and Moor immediately come to mind.

However, something highlighting Johann Sebastian Bach is surely a nice feature? The two-violin concerto is not, in my opinion, too ’cellistic’ in whichever key you put it, although I did prepare the slow movement many years ago. But this present one, with oboe and violin soloists, does offer (I think) greater delight for two cellos.

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