Elena Kats-Chernin’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is subtitled Lebewohl, literally “Farewell” in German, but in the 18th century more of an expression of endearment meaning “Live well until we meet again”.

The concerto is a rumination on what must have been the absolute nadir of JS Bach’s life when he returned home after a tour to find that his young wife, the 36-year-old Maria Barbara, had died and was already buried. Maria and Johann Sebastian had seven children together but lost three in infancy. It was thought that Maria’s unexplained final illness was a complication from childbirth. 

The five movements of the concerto roughly follow what would now be termed the stages of bereavement. Johann likely experienced: shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, reflection and loneliness, acceptance and reconstruction. Each movement is prefaced by an apposite quote from one of Bach’s cantatas from the same period. 

When I read the program it instantly put me in mind of one of Bach’s own earliest compositions, the Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother –...