After working for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, Bach was appointed cantor of the St. Thomas School in Leipzig. He moved family and furniture in May of 1723. His job description included duties as civic director of music, and this meant numerous odious encounters with the Town Council. He complained of “superiors who are strange people, with little regard for music.”

Some relief from his official duties came in 1729, when he was asked to direct the Leipzig Collegium Musicum, a group founded 25 years earlier by Telemann. During the winter, they performed every Friday night at Gottfried Zimmermann’s coffeehouse. In the warmer months, they moved outdoors in the garden for concerts every Wednesday afternoon.

For these concerts, Bach resurrected a number of violin and oboe concertos that he had written in Cöthen and transcribed them for keyboard and strings. These concertos are now placed from as early as 1729 to as late as 1744--roughly the dates of Bach’s tenure as director of the Collegium Musicum.

The original source for the A major concerto has not been found. It may be an arrangement of some lost concerto for violin or oboe d’amore.

~ Program notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2023