It is almost impossible to tell from listening to them that Bach’s extremely popular concerti for harpsichord were probably his own transcriptions of solo concerti which had originally been composed for violin or a woodwind instrument. While in many cases the original model is unknown, this is not true in the case of the D major Concerto BWV 1054, which was written in 1738 as an arrangement of the E major Violin Concerto BWV 1042. Once again Bach succeeds in conjuring a brilliant and idiomatic keyboard work from the violin part. Not only because of this, but also principally due to its lively and cheerful outer movements, BWV 1054 belongs among the highlights of Bach’s rich compositional output. The piano reduction comprises the solo part together with a very playable piano reduction prepared by Johannes Umbreit for practical use.
G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.
Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:
- provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
- offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
- are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
- are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
- contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
- contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French
