Menuet from 'Brandenburg' Concerto No. 1 in F major
Menuet from BWV 1046 performed by the Netherlands Bach Society
conducted by Shunske Sato
TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht
Behind the music
Story
Story
Extra videos
Extra videos
Credits
Credits
A fascinating minuet
Religious expression, experimental urge or party music?
The 'Brandenburg' concertos have a delightful and fascinating effect, while raising questions at the same time. In writing them, Bach joined in with an Italian rage – the concerto – while always giving his own twist to them. Right from the start, 'Brandenburg' concerto no. 1, and particularly the minuet from it, is a good example of this. In this recording for All of Bach, you hear only the minuet. It was preceded by three movements – quick – slow – quick, in the traditional order of concertos like those written by Vivaldi. But then Bach adds a minuet. And what a minuet it is!
At the start, nothing seems out of the ordinary: an elegant orchestral piece as a diversion after a serious movement. Followed by a second section (trio) for three wind instruments, as already done by the Italian composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. But after the repetition of the first section, all of a sudden comes a polonaise. And then, following another repeat of the main theme, there is a fanfare from two hunting horns. After that, we hear the first section for the last time. The minuet, with its unusual turnings, is almost twice as long as any of the other three movements of 'Brandenburg' concerto No. 1.
What did Bach intend by this minuet? Was it an experiment, in which he demonstrated his artistic freedom? Or taking a theological approach, maybe the deeply religious Bach wanted to represent the hereafter, without earthly laws and agreements, in music that pushed back the boundaries. Or was Bach simply doing what his boss asked of him? In his day, concertos were often intended as table music for a lavish banquet. So maybe Bach’s patron, the Margrave of Brandenburg, simply wanted festive music to accompany the dessert.
Brandenburg concertos, BWV 1046-1051
In March 1721, Bach sent a manuscript from Köthen to Berlin entitled ‘Six concertos with several instruments’ (Six concerts avec plusieurs instruments), dedicated to Christian Ludwig (1677-1734), Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. In the preface, Bach stated that he had played for the margrave ‘a couple of years ago’ and had promised to send him ‘some of his compositions’. That was probably during a visit to Berlin in March 1719, when Bach had travelled to the Prussian capital to take receipt of a new harpsichord for the court in Köthen. The music that he sent to the margrave a couple of years later (which subsequently became known as the 'Brandenburg' Concertos) was Bach’s ultimate view of the most important large-scale instrumental genre of his day: the concerto.
A concerto nearly always involves a solo instrument (or combination of solo instruments) and an ensemble. The key idea is the alternation between one or more soloists and the whole ensemble, in a sort of light-hearted competition. In the six 'Brandenburg' Concertos, Bach explores every facet of this genre, with regard to both instrumentation and the way in which he handles the form. All the traditionally used string and wind instruments and the harpsichord appear as soloists, the musical forms range from court dances to near-fugues, and the relationship between the solos and tutti instruments is always shifting. Together, the six concertos thus form a virtuoso sample sheet of the Baroque concerto.
- BWV
- 1046
- Title
- Minuet from Concerto in F major
- Epithet
- Minuet from ‘Brandenburg’ concerto No. 1
- Genre
- orchestral works
- Serie
- Brandenburg concertos
- Year
- 1716-1720
- City
- Köthen (but possibly earlier in Weimar)
- Occasion
- Dedicated in 1721 to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg
Extra videos
Vocal texts
Original
Translation
Credits
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- Release date
- 9 March 2023
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- Recording date
- 2 October 2018
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- Location
- TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht
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- Violin and direction
- Shunske Sato
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- Violin 1
- Sayuri Yamagata
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- Violin 2
- Anneke van Haaften
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- Viola
- Staas Swierstra
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- Cello
- Lucia Swarts
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- Double bass
- Robert Franenberg
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- Oboe
- Emma Black, Pedro Castro, Yongcheon Shin
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- Horn
- Gijs Laceulle, Teunis van der Zwart
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- Bassoon
- Eyal Streett
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- Harpsichord
- Siebe Henstra
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- Director and editor
- Lucas van Woerkum
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- Music recording
- Guido Tichelman, Bastiaan Kuijt, Pim van der Lee
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- Music edit and mix
- Guido Tichelman
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- Camera
- Robert Berger, Nina Badoux, Joas Burggraaf, Jasper Gheluwe
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- Lights
- Zen Bloot
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- Assistant director
- Stijn Berkhouwer
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- Assistant music recording
- Marloes Biermans
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- Set technique
- Alex de Gier
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- Project manager videobrix
- Peter Hazenberg
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- Producer concert
- Marco Meijdam
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- Producer film
- Jessie Verbrugh
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