Die Freitagsakademie - Bach Concertos: Lost and Found (2022) [Hi-Res]

The Bern Friday Academy around oboist Katharina Suske has taken on several recent reconstructions of Bach concertos with verve and esprit, three of which have been recorded here for the first time alone.

"An album of hitherto unknown music by Johann Sebastian Bach would be a sensation! What may seem rather unlikely at first glance, the ensemble Die Freitagsakademie under the direction of Katharina Suske has nevertheless succeeded. Some of Bach's works that are considered lost today have been reconstructed in recent years and are now available on the album "Bach Concertos: Lost and Found", partly as first recordings.

The practice of reworking, rewriting, and reusing pre-existing musical material can be found in all of Bach's creative periods, as he made use of his own compositional oeuvre throughout his life and knew how to use it masterfully. Knowledge of Bach's musical recycling strategies has allowed music researchers to reconstruct some of these supposedly lost compositions. For example, a triple concerto for flute, oboe d'amore and violin in G major was composed from the opening choruses of the cantatas BWV 99, 125 and 115 and is also reminiscent in parts of the famous Brandenburg Concertos. In the case of the Harpsichord Concerto in A major BWV 1055, the Friday Academy assumes that the middle movement Adagio comes from a now lost concerto and was originally based on a version of the Shepherd Cantata BWV 249 / 2.

In the case of the Harpsichord Concerto BWV 1054, the underlying violin concerto has also survived, which in turn facilitated the reconstruction of the Violin Concerto in G minor, based on the Harpsichord Concerto BWV 1065. The Sinfonia of the secular soprano cantata ""Non sa che sia dolore"" BWV 209 also seems to come from a solo concerto. This is typical of Bach, who took movements from his concertos and reworked these older compositions into cantata movements.
Thus, the Friday Academy points out the fascinating mixture of genres of Johann Sebastian Bach's lost compositions and brings them to new life in "Bach Concertos: Lost and Found".