JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 4, 5 & 6

 

Il Giardino Armonico

 

In the Brandenburg Concerto No.4 Bach skilfully unites elements of the solo concerto with those of a typical concerto grosso. The solo, or concertino, group in this work consists of a violin and two flauti d’echo while that of the ripieno comprises strings and continuo. Bach's flauti d’echo have long puzzled scholars and interpreters alike; the consensus nowadays favours treble recorders as the most likely and effective instruments.

Both on stylistic and instrumental grounds the Concerto No.5 is the most forward-looking of the six. Not only does it embrace aspects of the developing solo concerto more wholeheartedly than the remaining works in the set, but Bach also writes here for the newly fashionable transverse flute as opposed to the recorders of concertos nos. 2 and 4. In his promotion of the harpsichord to a position of soloist, alongside the flute and violin, Bach was indeed an innovator. Although, essentially, the work remains a concerto grosso, the harpsichord solo in the first movement and its other exposed passages entitle it to an important place in the subsequent development of the keyboard concerto.

There is world of difference between the occasional splendour of the first Brandenburg, with its hunting horns and courtly dances, and the soft-spoken, chamber music intimacy of Concerto No.6. This concerto differs from the other five in that Bach, exceptionally excluded violins entirely from the instrumental texture. Like the Concerto No.3 of the set, this one is for strings only; and like No.3, the strings are grouped in accordance with their range. Bach has assembled, in two groups, representatives of the newer violin family and members of the older, obsolescent viol family.

 

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