Italian Concerto, BWV 971, performed on harpsichord by Martha Goldstein

1. (Allegro)

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2. Andante

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3. Presto

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Apart from his orchestral keyboard concertos and his solo organ concertos, Johann Sebastian Bach composed keyboard concertos for unaccompanied harpsichord:

• Most of his Weimar concerto transcriptions, over twenty arrangements of Italian and Italianate orchestral concertos which he produced around 1713–1714 when he was employed in Weimar, were written for solo harpsichord (BWV 592a and 972–987).
• Two decades later, some ten years after he had become Thomaskantor in Leipzig, he wrote a concerto for two harpsichords, BWV 1061a, which was later orchestrated as BWV 1061.
• The Italian Concerto, BWV 971, was published in 1735 as part of his Clavier-Übung II.

Weimar concerto transcriptions

In his Weimar period, Johann Sebastian Bach transcribed Italian and Italianate concertos. Most, if not all, of the concerto transcriptions for unaccompanied harpsichord were realised from July 1713 to July 1714. Most of these transcriptions were based on concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Other models for the transcriptions included concertos by Alessandro Marcello, Benedetto Marcello, Georg Philipp Telemann and Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Concerto in G major, BWV 592a

After Violin Concerto in G major [scores] by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar, and organ version BWV 592.^[9]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Grave
3. Presto

Concerto in D major, BWV 972

1. Allegro

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2. Largo- Larghetto

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3. Allegro

All of the above performed by Wanda Landowska (972).

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After Violin Concerto in D major Op. 3 No. 9 (RV 230) by Antonio Vivaldi.^[10] There is an earlier version of this arrangement, BWV 972a.^[11]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Largo- Larghetto
3. Allegro

Concerto in G major, BWV 973

After Violin Concerto in G major, RV 299, by Antonio Vivaldi (later version published as Op. 7 No. 8).^[12]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Largo
3. Allegro

Concerto in D minor, BWV 974

After Oboe Concerto in D minor by Alessandro Marcello.^[13][6]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Adagio
3. Presto

Concerto in G minor, BWV 975

After Violin Concerto in G minor, RV 316, by Antonio Vivaldi (variant RV 316a, published as Op. 4 No. 6).^[14]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Largo
3. Giga Presto

Concerto in C major, BWV 976

After Violin Concerto in E major Op. 3 No. 12 (RV 265) by Antonio Vivaldi.^[15]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Largo
3. Allegro

Concerto in C major, BWV 977

After an unidentified model.^[16]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Adagio
3. Giga

Concerto in F major, BWV 978

After Violin Concerto in G major Op. 3 No. 3 (RV 310) by Antonio Vivaldi.^[17]

Movements:

1. Allegro
2. Largo
3. Allegro

Concerto in B minor, BWV 979

After Violin Concerto in D minor, RV 813, by Antonio Vivaldi (formerly RV Anh. 10 attributed to Torelli).^[18][7][8]

Movements:

1. Allegro – Adagio
2. Allegro
3. Andante
4. Adagio
5. Allegro

Concerto in G major, BWV 980

After Violin Concerto in B-flat major, RV 383 by Antonio Vivaldi (variant RV 383a published as Op. 4 No. 1).^[19]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Largo
3. Allegro

Concerto in C minor, BWV 981

After Violin Concerto in C minor Op. 1 No. 2 by Benedetto Marcello.^[20]

Movements:

1. Adagio
2. Vivace
3. [no tempo indication]
4. Prestissimo

Concerto in B-flat major, BWV 982

After Violin Concerto in B-flat major Op. 1 No. 1 by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.^[21]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Adagio
3. Allegro
4. Allegro

Concerto in G minor, BWV 983

After an unidentified model.^[22]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Adagio
3. Allegro

Concerto in C major, BWV 984

After the Violin Concerto in C major by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe–Weimar (like BWV 595).^[23]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Adagio e affettoso
3. Allegro assai

Concerto in G minor, BWV 985

After the Violin Concerto in G minor, TWV 51:g1 [scores], by Georg Philipp Telemann.^[24]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Adagio
3. Allegro

Concerto in G major, BWV 986

After an unidentified model.^[25]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Adagio
3. Allegro

Concerto in D minor, BWV 987

After Concerto Op. 1 No. 4 by Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.^[26]

Movements:

1. [no tempo indication]
2. Allegro
3. Adagio
4. Vivace

Original compositions

Bach composed unaccompanied keyboard concertos for one and two harpsichords.^[2][27]

Italian Concerto included in Clavier-Übung II

Bach's Italian Concerto, BWV 971, was published in 1735, as first of two compositions included in Clavier-Übung II.^[28] An early version of the concerto's first movement survives in an 18th-century copy.^[29]

Early version of Concerto for two harpsichords, BWV 1061

BWV 1061a, a concerto for two harpsichords without accompaniment, is Bach's original version of the Concerto for two harpsichords and strings, BWV 1061.^[30]

Doubtful works

Several concertos for unaccompanied harpsichord are listed as doubtful in Anhang II of the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis:^[31]

• BWV 909 – Concerto and Fugue in C minor
• BWV Anh. 151 – Concerto in C major
• BWV Anh. 152 – Concerto in G major

Discography

BWV 592a and 972–987

• Pieter Dirksen [nl] (1999). Brilliant Classics 99372/3 and /4.

Italian Concerto

BWV 909

• Guy Penson [fr] (1986). Ricercar RIC 038014
• Christiane Wuyts (1988). Brilliant Classics 99362/9.

BWV 1061a

• Guillermo Brachetta and Menno van Delft [nl] (2016). Resonus RES 10189.