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Brandenburg Concertos 7-12

Author Behruz Jahangiri

Published on: May 8, 2023

Six new Brandenburg concerts

Concerto Copenhagen musicians present six new "Brandenburg Concertos" based on Bach's own music

Johann Sebastian Bach composed his six Brandenburg Concertos BWV 1046-1051 around 1720 as a gift to the Margrave of Brandenburg. As far as we know, the Brandenburg Concertos were never performed by Bach himself, but Bach took parts of the music and reused it in other contexts - including as instrumental movements in cantatas.

A similar story applies to Bach's six trio sonatas for organ BWV 525-530 written in the late 1720s in Leipzig. Many of the movements are recycled from previously composed music. Music for other contexts and instruments but rewritten and adapted for organ.

Inspired by J. S Bach's own frequent recycling and rewriting, oboist Antoine Torunczyk - in close collaboration with the musicians of Concerto Copenhagen - has orchestrated Bach's six organ trio sonatas with the Brandenburg Concertos as a model.

In working on the new "Brandenburg Concertos", Antoine Torunczyk and the musicians have followed the originals in several ways: both Bach's use of a wide range of instruments - including several that are very rare today - and the way Bach varies and mixes instrumentation and function - solo and accompanying - have served as inspiration, and MON will be able to experience oboe da caccia, viola d´amore and violoncello da spalla among others. The aim is that the original three-part music from the organ trio sonatas now appears bright, light and transparent with a wide color palette from the exotic baroque instruments.

Antoine Torunczyk and Concerto Copenhagen also hope that our new "Brandenburg Concertos" will appear both familiar and new at the same time. As something unmistakable and recognizable composed by Bach, but also fresh and new. In other words, it should be reminiscent of something MON has never heard before. Whether it succeeds is up to the individual listener!

Previous reviews of the original Brandenburg concerts

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