Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Bach Brandenburg Concertos 2-6

Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos present one of music’s great riddles. Their history reads like the script for classic adventure caper:  we don’t know why Bach gifted them as a set to the Margrave of Brandenburg or exactly what he did with them; they were then ‘lost’ in the library of a Princess for around a century before being rediscovered and published in 1850; and the manuscript was nearly lost for ever during World War I when the train carrying it to Berlin was blown up…

Then there are the riddles in the music itself. Why Bach chose the unprecedented combinations of instruments, who he envisaged playing this music of endless inventiveness which demands a supergroup ensemble of virtuosos, or if he intended them to be performed as a collected set at all.

The OAE, one of the world’s leading period-instrument ensembles returns to Malvern following their memorable sell-out concert of Beethoven symphonies in January 2020.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F for Trumpet, Recorder, Oboe, Violin and Orchestra

Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G for Orchestra

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D for Harpsichord, Flute, Violin and Orchestra

Interval

Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B Flat for Two Violas and Strings

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G for Two Recorders, Violin and Orchestra