IMPORTANT UPDATE: We regret to inform you that due to unforeseen circumstances, Craig Hill will be unable to perform in this concert series. We are deeply saddened that Craig is unable to join the Brandenburg on stage for this highly anticipated concert series, however we hope to see him performing with us once again in the near future.
WF BACH Sinfonia in D minor, Adagio e Fuga, F 65 Introducing Sara Macliver & Russell Harcourt Known as a “Phrygian half-cadence,” it consists of just two connected chords, often extensively ornamented, that have been described as a “musical semicolon” that conjoins the moderately quick opening movement with the faster, more energetic finale.Please enter your search terms above and press return to search! Search Close Close Though it is technically a three-movement work, modern listeners are sometimes startled to encounter the central movement, which consists of just a single measure. In the third Brandenburg Concerto, stringed instruments are featured: three each of violins, violas, and cellos. But while their voices remain separate, their interplay is less oppositional than we hear in Romantic concertos. Together they form what we might think of as an ideally sized chamber orchestra, with the concertino taking solo lines and the ripieno providing the benefits of a larger ensemble. We can see the roots of the more familiar solo concerto here: The smaller group of players, or concertino, can range from two to five instrumentalists and corresponds to the modern concerto soloist, while the larger group, or ripieno-usually a dozen players or fewer-takes the ensemble role.
In form, these precursors of the solo concerto and the symphony have an appeal both visual and aural: two small groups of players, one larger and arrayed just behind the smaller group, play a suite typically comprised of three movements of alternating tempi, most often fast-slow-fast. 3 may well be the most popular concerto grosso ever written. Whatever the reason, we know from Bach’s dedication page that he hoped the score would secure either a position in the margrave’s court or further commissions.Īs the most popular of the six concertos, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. Based on the instrumentation Bach employed in the set, it is likely that he based at least some of them on concertos he had written while Kapellmeister at Köthen or perhaps earlier, while at Weimar such recycling was standard practice for composers. What happened after that is less clear, but it seems certain that the compositions were submitted and remained unpaid-for. Bach’s call upon the margrave had the desired effect, who commissioned several works. Then, as now, making a living as a musician was not easy, and composers relied upon the patronage of noble families and the church. On his way to Berlin to order the instrument, he took the opportunity to perform for the margrave of the region, Christian Ludwig. We can trace this set of six concertos back to about 1719, when Bach, who was in his early 30s, needed a new harpsichord.
Which would be enough to establish Bach as one of the greatest composers of all time without even considering the secular compositions we hear most often in the concert hall-works such as his Brandenburg Concertos and orchestral suites.Īccording to tradition, Bach composed the Brandenburg Concertos as an unsuccessful job application, and as impossibly dramatic as that sounds, it is very close to the truth. In oratorio he is the transcendent figure, composer of hundreds of sacred cantatas and three full-length oratorios that are acknowledged as high points of Western art. To fanciers of the pipe organ, Bach is the wellspring: one of history’s greatest organists and composers of organ music, comprising perhaps a third of his total output. Bach lived until the modern-day retirement age of 65 and produced so much great music that even his admirers can lose sight of it all.
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