Brandenburg concerti
J. S. Bach’s celebrated set of concertos was dedicated to the Margrave, Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg (1677–1734), uncle of the philistine soldier-king, Friedrich Wilhelm I. In 1719, Bach visited Christian Ludwig’s musical establishment in Berlin, performed for him and was requested to forward some compositions. Sending the Concertos in March 1721, Bach highlighted how these works were ‘adapted to several instruments’, a distinctive feature of the set.
Nowadays, the rehabilitation of Bach’s Brandenburg concertos is well established. Yet these pieces remained forgotten after the composer’s death until eventually published in 1850. Half a century after this, Reger’s piano duet transcriptions made them widely available for home consumption, although for many years the unusual instrumentation of the original still inhibited conductors from including them in orchestral programmes. Indeed Thomas Beecham famously asserted that he would have very happily given all of the Brandenburg concertos for Massenet’s Manon and still think that he had profited from the exchange.
But in 1936 the Busch Chamber Players recorded them complete and in the 1950s the first of many performances on period instruments was made by members of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Since that time, historical awareness has reinforced the status of the Brandenburg concertos as chamber music, rather than the full-blown concerto whose home-ground is the symphony concert.
The current vogue for programming all six Brandenburgs in a single evening has serious logistical (including economic) implications, if only because each one requires such individual forces. If Concerto No 1 begins the programme, the two horns and second and third oboes will be heading for home before the concert interval. In a brief but often lucrative contribution to the proceedings a star trumpeter is required to partner the other three soloists (including recorder) in the second Brandenburg, a work which exposes some special balance problems in the recording studio. At various times in the 20th century the formidable high trumpet part has been assigned to some curious interlopers, notably sopranino saxophone and E-flat clarinet.
Brandenburg No 4 poses further problems, since Bach specifies two fiauti d’echo in combination with the virtuoso violin soloist. It is nowadays generally agreed that treble recorders were intended here. Concerto No 5 elevates the harpsichord for the first time in musical history from mere continuo to virtuoso soloist, whose part incorporates a demanding written-out cadenza.
The characterful third and sixth Concertos are scored for unusual combinations of strings alone. The former requires three each of violins, violas and cellos, supported by violone and harpsichord. This allows for a flexibility in solo and tutti and an organisation of material that is complex, original and masterly. Much ink has been spilt in discussion of the implications of the two chords left by Bach here in place of a central slow movement.
The veiled, dark sound of Concerto No 6 arises from the absence of violins and other high instruments. Its foreground instruments are two violas and cello, members of the relatively new violin family, whose timbres are contrasted with two viola da gambas and continuo. Such forces make this a difficult work to programme in concerts given a normally constituted string orchestra: only when played by the prescribed instruments one to a part does it reveal its intimate, undemonstrative textures to proper effect.
This article, by Colin Lawson, first appeared in Early Music Today