An accomplished violinist as well as keyboard player, Bach wrote at least six concertos for one or more violins and several that combine violin with other types of solo instruments. The celebrated “Double” Concerto is in fact a concerto grosso, in which a small solo group (concertino)—here two violins—is contrasted with a larger group (ripieno or tutti). Accordingly Bach titled his manuscript: Concerto à 6, 2 violini concertini, 2 violini e 1 viola di ripieni, violoncello e continuo di J. S. Bach.

It was once thought that Bach had composed the work between 1717 and 1723 in Cöthen where he composed the Brandenburg Concertos, but scholar Christoph Wolff has convincingly suggested that this and the A minor Violin Concerto date from around 1730–31 in Leipzig, where Bach directed the Collegium Musicum. Founded at the University in 1702 by Georg Philipp Telemann, this society was made up primarily of students under professional leadership.

The Collegium presented public community concerts, one of the first organizations to do so in Germany, and ultimately led to the renowned Leipzig Gewandhaus. During Bach’s tenure he was constantly composing for their weekly concerts: overtures, duo and trio sonatas, sinfonias, and concertos, which he often performed with his sons and pupils as soloists.

A longtime admirer of the works of Vivaldi, Bach employed the concerto form that the Italian master standardized in the eighteenth century—three movements: fast, slow, fast. He also availed himself of Vivaldi’s ritornello form (in which a refrain alternates with episodic excursions). All three movements of the Double Concerto make use of or allude to ritornello form. Surprisingly for a concerto, the first movement’s ritornello refrain occurs in the manner of a fugue.

In the Largo, ma non tanto, one of Bach’s most beautiful and heart-stirring slow movements, the soloists dominate. The way in which the solo parts intertwine, often weaving lovely chains of suspensions, continues to create a fascinating and emotional effect no matter how many times one has heard the work.

The finale begins with a rhythmic cascade of close imitative counterpoint and unfolds in a free ritornello structure. Of special interest are the episodes in which, reversing their roles, the soloists play broad chords while the orchestra provides the motivic interest. The movement’s rhythmic drive creates a hypnotic momentum.

Denis and Erin Bouriakov made the present arrangement for two flutes and orchestra (or piano accompaniment). Such a switch of scoring among treble instruments was common in Bach’s day, and the Double Concerto works extremely well with flutes as the protagonists.

—©Jane Vial Jaffe