The Brandenburg Concertos

Revel in the complete set of ‘Six Concertos for several instruments’ in all its ‘imperfections’ and ‘daring combinations’! The history of the Brandenburg Concertos 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 forever during World War One 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.