The Brandenburg Concertos
MUSIC
JS BACH
Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 1–6
The Brandenburg Concertos present one of music’s great riddles. Their history 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 for ever during World War I 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.
Part of Southbank Centre Season 2024/25.
You might also be interested in
Bruckner: Symphony No. 5
Sun 13 Oct | 7pm London, Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth HallWe mark the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner's birth with principal guest artist Adam Fischer. The Symphony No. 5 embraces the range of human experience, from humour to the sacred.
Baroquebusters
Thu 9 Jan 2025 | 7pm London, Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth HallJulia Bullock brings the vocal fireworks to an evening celebrating the Greatest Hits of the 18th Century. A baroque-tastic exploration of why the masterpieces of the time became so popular and remain so today.
Bach: St Matthew Passion
Thu 3 Apr 2025 | 7pm London, Southbank Centre's Royal Festival HallFrom intimate grief to monumental crowd scenes, the St Matthew Passion is Bach's most profound musical testimony. The sorrowful retelling of Jesus' final hours is sculpted into a gripping drama under the direction of Jonathan Cohen.
