Bach: Keyboard Concerto No.2 in E (Perahia)

People always talk about Bach’s mastery of counterpoint – for good reason, of course. But sometimes overlooked is the fact that Bach was also a towering master of melody qua melody, something on clear display in the first movement of this concerto. The music has a real sense of inevitability – every note seems to be demanded by the one before. And even though it’s tempting to call the music optimistic or cheerful, it really isn’t quite that – what it is is elegant almost to the point of sadness, and in possession of a surprising dolce quality (that high B in the 3rd bar, 0:15, 2:24, and so on) that is unremitting even when the music veers off into darker territory. It’s this quality -- the lyricism of the melodic line -- that suggests (along with other stylistic features) that this concerto is based on a lost now-lost oboe concerto written in the Cöthen period. In any case, this concerto is not often performed, and that’s probably because the keyboard material places quite complex demands on the perf