Brandenburg Concertos

The Brandenburg Concertos are a set of six concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, compiled and dedicated in 1721 to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg, though most of the individual movements were likely composed somewhat earlier. Each concerto calls for a distinct combination of instruments, ranging from concertos featuring solo violin, flute and harpsichord to others built around groups of horns, oboes or trumpet, and together they display an unusually wide range of instrumental colour and formal experimentation within the Baroque concerto grosso tradition. The Margrave apparently never had his own orchestra perform them, and the manuscript sat largely unused in his library, but the set is now regarded as among the finest orchestral music of the Baroque period.