Bach's Brandenburg Concertos

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos Synopsis

The six concertos that Johann Sebastian Bach presented to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, in 1721 are among his most beloved works. First termed the "Brandenburg Concertos" by Philipp Spitta in his monumental nineteenth-century Bach biography, they have become household names. To many, they are the essence of Bach's music: irrepressibly upbeat, animatedly vibrant, and astonishingly contrapuntal.

Together with Handel's Messiah and Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, they represent the very heart of the Baroque repertory. In this new and lively account, leading musicologist George B. Stauffer takes the reader into the world of the Brandenburg Concertos.

He begins by tracing the emergence of the instrumental concerto in Italy toward the end of the seventeenth century before describing Bach's compositional epiphany upon discovering the concertos of Antonio Vivaldi around 1713, an encounter that resulted in the Brandenburg project eight years later. Stauffer then delves into the music itself, looking at the diverse ensembles and sometimes unusual instruments (such as the piccolo violin and echo flute) of each work.

He analyzes the individual movements in detail, using diagrams and audio examples to supplement the discussion. He concludes by exploring Bach's recycling of Brandenburg music in his cantatas and instrumental works and the slow posthumous rise of the collection, which languished in obscurity for almost a century before achieving global prominence in our time. Written in an accessible style for general readers as well as specialists, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos opens the door to understanding and appreciating these extraordinary pieces and the magical effect they have on performers and listeners.