The potential buyer may be puzzled to find a disc listing five sonatas for two flutes and continuo by J.S. Bach, a combination for which he wrote most probably just a single work, which itself exists in two other forms. That fact points to a prominent aspect of Bach's musical thinking, conditioned by his busy places of employment: he never wrote something new when he could reuse and recycle something already composed. Bach's chamber music, especially, has accordingly been rearranged by performers to suit their individual ...
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The potential buyer may be puzzled to find a disc listing five sonatas for two flutes and continuo by J.S. Bach, a combination for which he wrote most probably just a single work, which itself exists in two other forms. That fact points to a prominent aspect of Bach's musical thinking, conditioned by his busy places of employment: he never wrote something new when he could reuse and recycle something already composed. Bach's chamber music, especially, has accordingly been rearranged by performers to suit their individual needs, and this can in general work perfectly well. The present offering, however, is something slightly different. The program consists of the aforementioned Bach Sonata for two flutes and continuo in G major, BWV 1039, two arrangements by the performers of sonatas originally for viola da gamba and harpsichord, one sonata thought to be by one of Bach's sons but attributed to the elder Bach in the Bach Werke Verzeichnis, and finally an odd work, BWV 1038, that was originally written...
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