Post by Andrew SchulmanAnyone know anything about the arrangement Bach did of the first
movement of the E major violin concerto for organ and strings? I'm not
referring to the Sinfonia based on BWV 1006.
OK, found the source and what I remembered was mostly accurate;
unfortunately, the author was not accurate.
The book is "Bach's Orchestra" by Charles Sanford Terry, Oxford
University Press, 1932. Here is the quote from page 173:
"Little more than a fortnight later (27 August), Bach gave St.
Nicholas's another feast of concerted organ music. The occasion was of
particular solemnity and pomp; for the burgomaster and councillors were
present to inaugurate their year of office. Bach's normal orchestra,
accordingly, was augmented by the trumpeter Reiche, his colleagues, and
the drums. The cantata (No. 29) opened with the first movement of the
Violin Concerto in E, adapted for organ and orchestra, an exhilarating
sinfonia..."
First, I remembered 1729 but the year in question was 1731. And, as I
and others have pointed out here already, this Sinfonia is an
arrangement of the Preludio from Partita III for Unaccompanied Violin,
BWV 1006, not the first movement of Violin Concerto in E, BWV 1042.
Andrew