While flutists have plenty of music by Bach to keep us entertained, concertos for our instrument are unfortunately not on the list. Musicologist Francesco Zimei has built a solid argument toward the reconstruction of a lost flute concerto by Bach, which could have been the source of musical material for three cantata arias.

Working backwards, he has rebuilt the lost concerto. The opening Allegro is based on the first movement of Cantata 209 for soprano, “Non sa che sia dolore”, which has long been considered by scholars as having had its origins as a concerto movement. The central Andante comes from music we heard on our last session, Cantata 173 – the Tenor aria (No. 2). The closing Allegro is from Cantata 207, which we also heard earlier this year – in this case also a Tenor aria, No. 3. Interestingly, all three cantata movements are in the expected keys to conform the concerto (B minor for the outer movements and the relative major of D for the Andante) so no transposition was needed for the reconstruction.

Apparently Zimei’s arguments are solid enough for him to be working with the Neue Bach Ausgabe to officially include this piece in their edition of Bach’s oeuvre.