Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29
About this Piece
Bach was still a teenager when he began writing a cycle of six multi-movement pieces for solo violin (three sonatas and three partitas) that took more than a decade to complete. The fullness of the running 16th notes in the opening Preludio of one of these – his Violin Partita No. 3, BWV 1006 – pleased him so much he orchestrated it and included it in two different cantatas (BWV 29 and 120a). The transcription for organ by Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) derives from the more fully harmonized orchestration of the first of these cantatas and takes its title (Sinfonia) from it.
— From program notes by Gregg Wager