Brandenburg Concerto No.4

Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G BWV 1049 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6hQvvhqfJo

1. Allegro, 2. Andante, 3. Presto.

Bach's most celebrated set of orchestral works was not always so well-received as they are today. For, in March 1721, when Bach sent a carefully copied set of the six concertos to the Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg, he was in fact seeking alternative employment from his position at the court of Cöthen.

Bach had met the Margrave of Brandenburg whilst on a shopping trip to Berlin to buy a new harpsichord, the composer promised to send the nobleman 'some pieces of my compositions'. Bach only sent the compositions when his relationship with the Prince at Cöthen had soured. The Margrave neither acknowledged their receipt, nor had them performed. The works had been scored for a somewhat larger orchestra than the smaller forces of the Brandenburg house ensemble. It has also been suggested that the Margrave's players were technically not up to the task of Bach's complex music. For the next thirteen years, the concertos lay unused in the Margrave's library until his death, whereupon at the inventory-taking these works were not even included among the compositions important enough to be listed by their composers' names. They were lumped instead into a miscellany of musical works and valued at four groschen apiece, for the purpose of evaluating and dividing the Margrave's estate among his five heirs. The nickname "Brandenburg" itself was only applied much later in the nineteenth century when the manuscript was rediscovered in the Brandenburg archives. The 4^th Brandenburg Concerto also exists in an alternate version for two recorders and harpsichord, BWV 1057, again produced in Leipzig around 1740.