Most of his Weimar concerto transcriptions, over twenty arrangements of Italian and Italianate orchestral concertos which he produced around 1713–1714 when he was employed in Weimar, were written for solo harpsichord (BWV592a and 972–987).
Two decades later, some ten years after he had become Thomaskantor in Leipzig, he wrote a concerto for two harpsichords, BWV 1061a, which was later orchestrated as BWV 1061.
In his Weimar period, Johann Sebastian Bach transcribed Italian and Italianate concertos. Most, if not all, of the concerto transcriptions for unaccompanied harpsichord were realised from July 1713 to July 1714. Most of these transcriptions were based on concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Other models for the transcriptions included concertos by Alessandro Marcello, Benedetto Marcello, Georg Philipp Telemann and Prince Johann Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.
Bach's Italian Concerto, BWV 971, was published in 1735, as first of two compositions included in Clavier-Übung II. An early version of the concerto's first movement survives in an 18th-century copy.
Early version of Concerto for two harpsichords, BWV 1061
BWV 1061a, a concerto for two harpsichords without accompaniment, is Bach's original version of the Concerto for two harpsichords and strings, BWV 1061.
Doubtful works
Several concertos for unaccompanied harpsichord are listed as doubtful in Anhang II of the 1998 edition of the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis:
Sarah Elizabeth Hanks. The German Unaccompanied Keyboard Concerto in the Early 18th Century: Including Works of Walther, Bach, and Their Contemporaries. University of Iowa, 1972 (dissertation).
Karl Heller. "Zur Stellung des Concerto C-Dur für zwei Cembali BWV 1061 in Bachs Konzert-Œuvre", pp.241–251 in Bericht über die Wissenschaftliche Konferenz zum V. Internationalen Bachfest der DDR in Verbindung mit dem 60. Bachfest der Neuen Bach-Gesellschaft (1985), edited by Winfried Hoffmann and Armin Schneiderheinze. Leipzig, 1988. (in German)
Hirschmann, Wolfgang (2013), "'He Liked to Hear the Music of Others': Individuality and Variety in the Works of Bach and His German Contemporaries", in Andrew Talle (ed.), Bach Perspectives, Volume 9: J.S. Bach and His Contemporaries in Germany, University of Illinois Press, pp.1–23, ISBN978-0252095399
Marshall, Robert (1986), "Organ or 'Klavier'? Instrumental prescriptions in the sources of Bach's keyboard works", in George Stauffer; Ernest May (eds.), J.S. Bach as Organist, Indiana University Press, pp.212–239
Pincherle, Marc (1962), Vivaldi: Genius of the Baroque, translated by Christopher Hatch, W.W. Norton, ISBN0393001687{{citation}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Schulze, Hans-Joachim (1978), "J. S. Bachs Konzertbearbeitungen nach Vivaldi und anderen: Studien- oder Auftragswerke?", Deutsches Jahrbuch der Musikwissenschaft für 1973–1977, Leipzig, pp.80–100{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Stevens, Jane R. (2001), The Bach Family and the Keyboard Concerto: The Evolution of a Genre, Harmonie Park Press
Tagliavini, Luigi Ferdinando (1986), "Bach's organ transcription of Vivaldi's 'Grosso Mogul' concerto", in George Stauffer; Ernest May (eds.), J.S. Bach as Organist, Indiana University Press, pp.240–255
Talbot, Michael (1993), Vivaldi, The Master Musicians (2nded.), J.M. Dent, ISBN0460861085
Selfridge-Field, Eleanor (1990), The Music of Benedetto and Alessandro Marcello: A Thematic Catalogue with Commentary on the Composers, Repertory, and Sources, Oxford University Press, ISBN9780193161269
