Volume 23
The Cuckoo and the Nightingale

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
- Clavier Concerto, BWV 1052
- Clavier Concerto, BWV 1056
- Concerto for 4 Harpsichords, BWV 1065

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
- Organ Concerto No. 9
- Organ Concerto No. 13 "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale"

DANIEL CHORZEMPA, organ (Handel)
CONCERTO AMSTERDAM (Handel)
conducted by JAAP SCHRÖDER (Handel)
JEAN LOUIS STEUERMAN, piano (BWV 1052, 1056)
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA OF EUROPE (BWV 1052, 1056)
conducted by JAMES JUDD (BWV 1052, 1056)
RAYMOND LEPPARD, harpsichord (BWV 1065)
ANDREW DAVIS, harpsichord (BWV 1065)
PHILIP LEDGER, harpsichord (BWV 1065)
BLANDINE VERLET, harpsichord (BWV 1065)
ENGLISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (BWV 1065)
conducted by RAYMOND LEPPARD (BWV 1065)

CD 454 425-2 DDD/ADD
PHILIPS

- Didn't he know this music? The former court musician from Köthen, who had just arrived in the fair-town of Leipzig, stood curiously outside Zimmermann's coffee house. That was surely the A minor Violin Concerto of his former Kapellmeister, Bach, in which he himself had played. But here it was in an arrangement for harpsichord, and in another key. Could someone have stolen the music from the archives in Cöthen without Bach's knowledge, to pass it off now as his own? Curiously the ex-musician entered the coffee house, which was filled with pungent tobacco fumes. And what did he see? His ex-boss! From the harpsichord he was directing a small orchestra which apparently consisted of university students. Later Bach explained to his former subordinate the reason for this re-use of many of his old Cöthen works: since his sons had by now become skilful keyboard players, he arranged violin concertos as keyboard concertos to provide his offspring with the "fodder" they required.