Thüringer Bach Collegium Virtuosi (2021)

It was a momentous encounter: around 1714, the Weimar court organist Johann Sebastian Bach came across Antonio Vivaldi’s opus 3 L’Estro armonico, hot off the press, and soon nothing would be the same for him musically. Bach eagerly appropriated the Venetian Red Priest’s modern concerto style. And true to the meaning of the word “concertare”, which in Italian means “to unite”, but in Latin means “to argue” or “to fight”, Bach rapidly entered into a competition, first with his Italian models and then with himself. At the outset, he arranged Vivaldi’s violin concertos for his (main) instrument, the organ. But then he transferred Vivaldi’s principles into his own instrumental concerto style. The results were his immortal Köthen concertos for one to three solo instruments and orchestra, blending the concerto principle of structural tutti ritornellos and interspersed imaginative solo episodes with Bach’s unique polyphonic style – highly virtuosic works in which all participating instruments connect with one another at eye level, and also enter into fierce competition with each other. All this can be heard on the third audite album of the Thüringer Bach Collegium: a good 70 minutes of competition for the best musical arguments, presented with irresistibly sparkling virtuosity.