Concerto • Guitar and String Orchestra • Johann Christian Bach

Concerto • Guitar and String Orchestra • Johann Christian Bach

Orchestration

Duration: 18 - 20 minutes

In 1916, Henri Casadesus (1879-1947), presented a Concerto for viola and orchestra which he claimed to be a rediscovery of a work composed in London in 1768 by Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782). Later he also presented the work in alternative versions for violin and cello. Without offering any further documentation he maintained that he had reconstructed and harmonized the concerto, which Bach had left behind in fragmentary form with the beginnings of a keyboard accompaniment. This ruse continued through the original publication in 1947, until later researchers came to the conclusion that it was a forgery perpetrated by Casadesus to expand the limited concerti literature for viola and chamber ensemble.

Such deceptions have also been present in the literature of other instruments, most notably the contributions during the 1930’s and 1940’s by guitarist Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), who enlisted the help of his friend and master composer Manuel Maria Ponce (1882-1948) to create fictitious works in Baroque style and then attribute them to Silvius Leopold Weiss (1686-1750) or Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), in an effort to augment the limited scope of available compositions or arrangements during that period of time. (Usually on program notes the deception was further enhanced by claiming that they were from “a manuscript found in the British museum”.) Eventually the good natured deception was uncovered, but by that time the suites and solo works created by the Ponce/Segovia collaboration had become well established within the guitar literature.

Guitarist Gregg Nestor has arranged this Concerto for solo guitar and string orchestra, with optional harpsichord or piano. The original key of c minor has been altered to the more “friendly” key of d minor.

Guitarists should enjoy this welcome addition to the expanding repertoire that is becoming available to the instrument and to audiences everywhere.