Released 1976 by Philips Stereo 6566 028 (German release)
Released 1976 by Philips Universo series 6580142 (English release)
Isolde Ahlgrimm performed the works on a Rubio harpsichord with 2 manuals.
Cover: Detail of a harpsichord built by Burkhard Shudi, London 1744 (Collection Haags Gemeentemuseum)

Peter Watchorn wrote about this recording in April 2017: “The works here are taken from the Philips LP, released in 1976 to replace recordings from 1956 that had been “lost”, when IA recorded her Bach cycle from 1951 – 1956. Of the works recorded here, Isolde always thought that the Capriccio was her best playing (I think it’s the best version ever recorded). Listeners might also like to know that the LP was recorded on a David Rubio harpsichord in Holland (belonging to one of Gustav Leonhardt’s students). Isolde herself bought a Rubio in 1972 (it is pictured on the box fronts of the two 1974 re-releases of her 1950s Bach cycle).”

Thanks to Daniël, who let me browse the famous Daniël Beuman harpsichord collection. From both our worn out and damaged recordings (Daniëls German version Side 1: track 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Side 2: all tracks, Pauls English version Side 1: track 2 and 8)
I hope we were able to save this precious recording for listening in the future.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Side 1:
Italian Concerto in F, BWV 971
00:00 1. (Allegro) 4’10”
04:15 2. Andante 4’42”
09:57 3. Presto 4’13”

Capriccio in B flat, BWV 992 (sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo) 10’07”
13:19 Arioso (Adagio)
15:26 (Andante)
16:43 Adagissimo
19:43 Aria di postiglione (Adagio poco)
20:54 Fuga all’imitazione della cornetta di postiglione

Side 2:
Partita in B minor, BWV 831 17’13”
23:25 Ouverture
29:42 Courante
30:47 Gavotte I-II
32:40 Passepied I-II
34:24 Sarabande
35:40 Bourree I-II
37:25 Gigue
38:56 Echo

Four Duets:
40:39 No. 1 in E minor, BWV 802
43:42 No. 2 in F, BWV 803
46:37 No. 3 in G, BWV 804
49:52 No. 4 in A minor, BWV 805

Only a few of Bach’s works appeared in print
during his l ifetime. Among them , along with
other harpsichord works, is the Italian Concerto ,
published by Christopher Weigel in Nuremberg
on the occasion of the Easter Fair in 1735. This
concerto in three movements was presumably
composed in 1734, when Bach had already spent
a good 10 years as organist of St. Thomas’s
Church in Leipzig.
A considerable musical authority of the late
Baroque period , Johann Adolf Scheibe, praised
Bach’s Italian Concerto as a “perfect example of
a well-organised concerto for one instrument.”
Bach indeed made a successful attempt in this
work to simulate a complete concerto , using one
instrument only ; the instrumental concertos just
then becom ing fashionable owed their attraction
to the alternation of tutti and solo passages ; in
other words , passages for the whoJe ensemble
(the tutti) alternated with others reserved for the
solo instrument being used . Bach uses precisely
this alternation as a basis for the composition of
a work exclusively for harpsichord; the tutti and
solo passages stand opposed , as it were, on the
two manuals of the instruments. Bach omitted
any marking for the first movement;
accordingly a moderate tempo is advisable. The
Andante in D minor is followed by a conclud ing
Presto. Incidentally, the slow movement
suggests an extended violin solo accompanied
by strings. Here again Bach has perfectly
understood how to simulate a whole violin
concerto on the harpsichord .
Bach wrote his “Capriccio” in B flat when hewas
no more than 19 years old. In 1704 his brother
Johann Jakob Bach left home to join
Charles XII ‘s Swedish Guards as a trumpeter. As
a farewell to his adventurous brother, who was to
be driven as far as Turkey in the campaigns of the
‘Swedish king, Bach , working at the time in
Arnstadt in Thuringia, composed his “Capriccio
sopra la lontananza del suo f ratello dilettissimo”
(on the departure of his beloved brother).

#DavidRubio #IsoldeAhlgrimm