Bach's organ concerts, where are they? Unlike Handel, Bach does not seem to have contributed to the genre. The closest comes the instrumental parts of some cantatas, in which the organ plays a solo role. Often (as with the harpsichord concertos) such particles involved recycling of earlier violin and oboe concertos. Bach therefore easily coped with his concertante music, recycling as it suited him.
And that in turn inspired later instrumentalists to appropriate Bach's music. Bart Jacobs is therefore not the first organist to select Bach's concertos and cantatas in order to arrive at a series of (hypothetical) organ concerts. For the listeners it is often a feast of recognition. Because it is strikingly often the evergreens that come through the balloting. (HJ)more
