“The third Brandenburg Concerto is a kind of demonstration. It is the only demonstration concerto of that quintessential Italian Baroque instrument – the violin. This may sound a little strange, but violas, celli and double basses are nothing but enlarged violins. This string writing – it uses up to nine parts – is so dense! I feel it radiates a southern fullness of sound, a truly Italian feel. The violin is no doubt a southern instrument, and in the last movement of this concerto you can hear the warm Adriatic breeze very clearly.” (Nikolaus Harnoncourt) Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, named after their dedicatee the Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg, have been part of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s permanent repertoire ever since he founded his Concentus musicus ensemble. The ensemble has recorded them and played them on their tours throughout the world. The impulse which led Harnoncourt to establish the Concentus musicus in 1953 was his dissatisfaction with the traditional way of interpreting early music. The uncommon and sometimes radically different style of the Concentus musicus, as well as its exclusive use of historical instruments, secured the ensemble its international reputation. Harnoncourt introduces the concerto with a moving and fascinating analysis of the piece. Interesting musical examples, which Harnoncourt inserts in a humorous and relaxed manner, make this introduction an informative and entertaining guide to this masterpiece of music. The production was filmed in the historical Baroque monastery library in Wiblingen, Germany.

“This concerto is generally considered as a genuine triple concerto for violin and two flutes. In my opinion, it is purely a violin concerto, and the most virtuoso one Bach ever wrote. Musicologists always had their problems with the two flutes. Bach designated them as ‘Flauti d’echo’, and there have been all kinds of theories as to what instruments he could have meant. No one thought of looking for the explanation in the music itself. Bach always uses the term ‘flauto’ for the recorder, and ‘d’echo’ means nothing else than that the two recorders leave their seats in the orchestra in the slow movement, which is built around an echo effect, and play from another point in the room or outside of it, but in any case from a distance. Strong evidence supporting this theory is found at the beginning of the last movement, where the tutti plays without the recorders, so as to give them enough time to get back to their seats. ” (Nikolaus Harnoncourt) Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, named after their dedicatee the Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg, have been part of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s permanent repertoire ever since he founded his Concentus musicus ensemble. The ensemble has recorded them and played them on their tours throughout the world. The impulse which led Harnoncourt to establish the Concentus musicus in 1953 was his dissatisfaction with the traditional way of interpreting early music. The uncommon and sometimes radically different style of the Concentus musicus, as well as its exclusive use of historical instruments, secured the ensemble its international reputation. Harnoncourt introduces the concerto with a moving and fascinating analysis of the piece. Interesting musical examples, which Harnoncourt inserts in a humorous and relaxed manner, make this introduction an informative and entertaining guide to this masterpiece of music. The production was filmed in the historical Baroque monastery library in Wiblingen, Germany.

“I feel that the fifth Brandenburg Concerto is the most modern of all. Bach did borrow quite a bit of Vivaldi in it, but it does remain the first clavier concerto in music history. I consciously say ‘clavier’ concerto, since back then every keyboard instrument was called a clavier. So let’s call it a harpsichord concerto. But the idea of suddenly making a solo instrument out of an instrument that had been used in the ensemble only for the thoroughbass – I find that incredibly modern. This piece is no longer a concerto in which several soloists compete with each other and fight for preeminence. Here the harpsichord very clearly dominates. Bach played this part himself and must truly have felt like an emperor of music whose stature could be questioned by no one.” (Nikolaus Harnoncourt) Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, named after their dedicatee the Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg, have been part of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s permanent repertoire ever since he founded his Concentus musicus ensemble. The ensemble has recorded them and played them on their tours throughout the world. The impulse which led Harnoncourt to establish the Concentus musicus in 1953 was his dissatisfaction with the traditional way of interpreting early music. The uncommon and sometimes radically different style of the Concentus musicus, as well as its exclusive use of historical instruments, secured the ensemble its international reputation. Harnoncourt introduces the concerto with a moving and fascinating analysis of the piece. Interesting musical examples, which Harnoncourt inserts in a humorous and relaxed manner, make this introduction an informative and entertaining guide to this masterpiece of music. The production was filmed in the historical Baroque monastery library in Wiblingen, Germany.

“Bach made a gift of the manuscript of these concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg, and in this manuscript this concerto is the last and that is why it is called the sixth Brandenburg Concerto. But it could also have been the first of these concertos, which Bach had all written in Cöthen. Among musicologists, it is considered as the most traditional, but I am not at all of this opinion. What is sensational in this piece is its use of instruments, since the only solo strings used in the Baroque era were essentially the extroverted violins of Italy or the introverted gambas of France and England. That Bach wrote a concerto for two solo violas, the proletarian among the instruments, the one who never gets to play a solo – that was a social revolution among the instruments.” (Nikolaus Harnoncourt) Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, named after their dedicatee the Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg, have been part of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s permanent repertoire ever since he founded his Concentus musicus ensemble. The ensemble has recorded them and played them on their tours throughout the world. The impulse which led Harnoncourt to establish the Concentus musicus in 1953 was his dissatisfaction with the traditional way of interpreting early music. The uncommon and sometimes radically different style of the Concentus musicus, as well as its exclusive use of historical instruments, secured the ensemble its international reputation. Harnoncourt introduces the concerto with a moving and fascinating analysis of the piece. Interesting musical examples, which Harnoncourt inserts in a humorous and relaxed manner, make this introduction an informative and entertaining guide to this masterpiece of music. The production was filmed in the historical Baroque monastery library in Wiblingen, Germany.

“It is very unusual that a three-movement Baroque concerto should suddenly give way to a four-movement piece, as is the case here. In my opinion, this has medical reasons: the audiences of the Baroque era were much more passionate listeners, they were more deeply moved by what they heard, and I think that Bach wanted to calm the listener with a little suite after this exciting third movement. The first Brandenburg Concerto is the one with the largest orchestral scoring, and the orchestra shows up a few peculiarities with respect to the instruments used: it is one of the first pieces in which the bassoon is treated as a solo instrument. In the first movement the hunting horns (immediately recognizable as such) are introduced into art music, and this movement is one of Bach’s most refined little pieces altogether. Then he uses a ‘violino piccolo’, a little violin – not to be confused with a child’s violin – which sounds a lot cheekier than its big sister.” (Nikolaus Harnoncourt) Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, named after their dedicatee the Margrave Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg, have been part of Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s permanent repertoire ever since he founded his Concentus musicus ensemble. The ensemble has recorded them and played them on their tours throughout the world. The impulse which led Harnoncourt to establish the Concentus musicus in 1953 was his dissatisfaction with the traditional way of interpreting early music. The uncommon and sometimes radically different style of the Concentus musicus, as well as its exclusive use of historical instruments, secured the ensemble its international reputation. Harnoncourt introduces the concerto with a moving and fascinating analysis of the piece. Interesting musical examples, which Harnoncourt inserts in a humorous and relaxed manner, make this introduction an informative and entertaining guide to this masterpiece of music. The production was filmed in the historical Baroque monastery library in Wiblingen, Germany.