Barok op zondagmiddag: Helsinki Baroque Orchestra met klavecimbelconcerten van Bach

Helsinki Baroque Orchestra

The Helsinki Baroque Orchestra stands for emotional expressiveness and infectious vitality. Contemporary premieres of unpublished or reconstructed masterpieces? Or perhaps well-known music? The musicians from Finland love it all equally, and they prefer to shed a surprising light on it. German and Baltic music form an important part of their repertoire. 'This is playing at the highest level,' wrote Gramophone . This Sunday afternoon at the Concertgebouw, the Finns focus on harpsichord concertos by Bach.

Bach's harpsichord concertos

Continuo – the word implies that this orchestral section, harpsichord plus a bass instrument, plays continuously, providing modest accompaniment. But Bach’s harpsichord concertos give the instrument a completely new role. He wrote them for a critical audience of connoisseurs and had them performed at the Leipzig Café Zimmermann, either by himself or one of his sons. His arrangements of earlier works show how much he valued the harpsichord: every new version is an enrichment of the original. Moreover, the virtuosity and drama in these pieces foreshadow the piano concertos of Mozart and Beethoven – without Bach, they would never have come into being in this way.