The Brandenburg Concertos
MUSIC
JS BACH
Brandenburg Concerto No. 1
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
~interval~
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4
Brandenburg Concerto No. 6
Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
Huw Daniel piccolo violin/director
Margaret Faultless violin/director
Rodolfo Richter violin/director
Oliver Wilson viola/director
Lisa Beznosiuk flute
Rachel Beckett recorder
Catherine Latham recorder
Clara Espinosa Encinas oboe
David Blackadder trumpet
Steven Devine harpsichord
This concert is supported by Selina and David Marks.
The 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.
It all calls for a team of musical sleuths who can put the clues together to unmask the real Brandenburg Concertos.
Part of Southbank Centre Season 2024/25.
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