RNS Sessions: Alina Ibragimova performs Bach’s Violin Concerto No.2 in E
Alina Ibragimova joins Royal Northern Sinfonia in a performance of Bach’s Second Violin Concerto.
Performed live by Royal Northern Sinfonia on Friday 13 November 2020 at Sage Gateshead.
About the music
After miserable years as a court musician at Weimar, suffering under a stubborn and unsympathetic employer, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) appointment as Prince Leopold’s Music Director in 1717 brought a change of fortune, both materially and artistically. Only two concertos for solo violin have come down to us in their original form, in A minor and E major. The music-loving prince has built up a fine court orchestra, as his new Director was soon to discover. At its head was the talented Joseph Spiess, recruited from Berlin, and it was believed the two solo concertos were written for him to perform.
Three rising notes launch us into the Italian-influenced Allegro, and Bach builds upon his opening theme, demonstrating skills in counterpoint – the placing of two or more musical parts against each other to form a harmonious and comprehensible whole – which were very much his own.