Confessions of a Bachophile: KSO’s Rachel Loseke and I-Pei Lin Take on Bach’s Double Violin Concerto

It is unlikely that any musician living today can claim that they were thrown into prison by their employer for petty affronts and for asking to be let out of a contract. Yet, that was the situation for one Johann Sebastian Bach in the year 1717.

Bach had been employed by Wilhelm Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, since 1708, first as court organist, then as Concertmaster in 1714. By 1716, Bach’s relationship with his employer had soured over what could be called court jealousies by the Duke and disobediences from Bach. Bach was subsequently passed over for the position of Kapellmeister, and the composer’s annual allotment of music paper was withdrawn. In May of 1717, he submitted his letter of resignation to his Duke, a letter which went unanswered. Hearing of Bach’s seemingly untenable situation, Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen offered the composer the position of Kapellmeister, i.e. Court Music Director. Now fully insulted and determined to make the young musician miserable, the Duke ordered Bach detained and locked up “…because of his stubborn testimony and too forceful demand of dismissal.” On December 2, 1717, the dismissal was finally granted and Bach was allowed to relocate to Cöthen.

In general, Bach’s six years in Cöthen were much happier, despite the sudden death of his first wife, Maria Barbara, while he was traveling with the Prince. Without the responsibility of church music for the most part, Bach could focus on secular composition—the period yielded at least some of the Orchestral Suites and some of the Brandenburg Concertos, the treasure trove of sonatas, partitas, and suites for solo instruments, and the Violin Concertos in A minor (BWV 1041) and E Major (BWV 1042) and the Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor (BWV 1043).

(L) Rachel Loseke and (R) I-Pei Lin, KSO violinists – Photos: Rachel Loseke, KSO

Happily, no musicians in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will have to worry about being thrown into prison, at least not until after their Chamber Classics Series concert on Sunday afternoon at the Bijou. That concert will feature the above mentioned Double Violin Concerto with KSO violinists I-Pei Lin and Rachel Loseke as the soloists.

In what promises to be a very entertaining afternoon of programming, Maestro Aram Demirjian has included tonally contrasting works from Stravinsky and Shostakovich. Stravinsky’s Octet features an unusual complement of woodwind and brass. The Shostakovich work is the Rudolph Barshai transcription of the Shostakovich String Quartet No. 3 into the Chamber Symphony, Op. 73A for strings and woodwinds.