Descriere

The Concerto for Clavier and String Orchestra No. 5 in F Minor by Bach is an adaptation of a violin concerto of the composer which was lost in Leipzig between 1730 and 1733. Obviously the original was written much earlier in Coethen, in about 1720, together with two violin concertos in A Minor and E Major.
The F. Minor Concerto is frequently performed to this day. As compared with Bach’s other concertos it is unusually laconic. It takes about ten minutes to play it. The prevailing features of the first movement are, undoubtedly, vigour and will, which are dictated by the restrained rhythm. The finale is a brilliant, virtuosic piece filled with seething energy. Nevertheless, it is the middle slow movement here that stands out in its elevated simplicity and perfection. This movement was later used as an introductory section in Cantata No. 156, where the solo part was assigned to the oboe.
Among the sixteen instrumental concertos, which J. S. Bach transcribed for the clavier in Weimar, between 1708 and 1717, the adaptation of the Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra in D Minor by Alessandro Marcello (1684— 1750) is particularly worthy of notice. Until recently this work was ascribed to the brother of the latter, the famous Italian composer and poet Benedetto Marcello.
The wonderful music of the Concerto is known to the majority of music-lovers through the Adagio of rare beauty. The Concerto is notable for its clear outlines and definite character of each movement. It puts an interesting task before the performer — to revise some features, ligatures and dynamics in keeping with the specific sounding of the clavier in Bach’s time, invariably keeping the original version in mind.
In the versatile creative heritage of the distinguished German composer F. Mendelssohn, instrumental concertos, particularly the First Piano Concerto and the Violin Concerto, occupy a prominent place. He wrote the Piano Con¬certo No. 1 in G Minor, when he was twenty-two and it immediately won popularity in Europe, largely through its brilliant introduction by the author in Munich in October 1831. «Bright talent», «freshness», «charm», «brilliance» — all these definitions of Mendelssohn’s music in general can largely be applied to the G Minor Concerto.
This Concerto with its romantic spirit and classical structure has retained its unfading charm to this day.
Dmitri Bashkirov is one of the most distinguished representatives of the Soviet piano school. His style of playing is notable for its high individuality. Side by side with purely romantic enthusiasm, emotional candidness and active creative will, Bashkirov’s playing is notable for keen contrasts and rich imaginative content. All the aggregate of devices of performance is with Bashkirov aimed at revealing the essence of the work and the original style of the composer to the audience.
The range of the pianist’s creative interests is broad. Pie plays Beethoven and Schubert, Schumann and Brahnis, Ravel and Rachmaninov, Debussy and Mozart, Prokofiev and Shchedrin. His repertory also includes many ensemble pieces by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Shosta¬kovich and Prokofiev.
D. Bashkirov has given concerts in the USA and Canada, Spain and France, Japan, Norway, the GFR, Hungary, Ru¬mania, Yugoslavia, Finland and many other countries. In the GDR in 1970 Dmitri Bashkirov was awarded a special honorary prize and the Schumann Medal for the outstanding interpretation of the works of this great German composer.