Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings Nr. I

In early 1729 Bach became director of the so-called »Scottish Collegium Musician« a music organization of students and local citizens. The remarkable results of this undertaking are the concertos for harpsichord. Today it is almost certain that practically all of these concertos were transcribed from concertos for melody instruments (mostly violin or oboe).

The D-minor Concerto, BWV 1052, forms the opening item in Bach’s autograph score of his six harpsichord concertos, BWV 1051 to BWV 1057 (Berlin Staatsbibliothek, Mus. ms. Bach P 234). Bach scholars are unanimously in agreement that the piece was transcribed from a violin concerto in the same key. The originalconcerto, although no longer extant today, can be reconstructed with some degree of certainty from its various transcriptions.