Bach - Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 in D major BWV 1050a - Sato | Netherlands Bach Society

In the six 'Brandenburg' Concertos, Bach explores every facet of the genre 'concerto', with regard to both instrumentation and the way in which he handles the form. 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 this Fifth Concerto, Bach introduces a novelty: the harpsichord as a solo instrument. At first glance, the flute, violin and harpsichord seem equivalent, but then suddenly the harpsichordist takes the lead with a solo cadence at the end of the first movement.

In this performance, an early version of this cadence is played (hence BWV 1050a instead of BWV 1050). This version is shorter than the later version, which we recorded with harpsichordist Richard Egarr: https://youtu.be/LHjbRMIIhuM. Both versions share some of the same material, that recalls the character of certain youthful fantasias by Bach (such as the Chromatic Fantasia). If the longer version (BWV 1050) compensates for the almost stormy material with a long introduction full of light and a conclusion full of hope, the shorter version (BWV 1050a) has unique passages, such as those dizzying chromatic descending scales, difficult to find in other works by Bach.

For more information on BWV 1050a and credits of this production go to https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-1050a/
For the complete set of 'Brandenburg' concertos go to https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLecKPCyj4yRPXmmt0yFK3pF2HY8kux3RH
For the short documentary on 'Brandenburg' concertos go to https://youtu.be/vC7L9P8B8JY

Recorded for the project All of Bach on October 2nd 2018 at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht. If you want to help us complete All of Bach, please subscribe to our channel https://bit.ly/2vhCeFB and consider donating https://bit.ly/3J5uprM.

All of Bach is a project of the Netherlands Bach Society, with the aim to perform and record all of Bach's works and share them online with the world for free. Visit our online treasury for more videos and background material on https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach. For concert dates and tickets go to https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/concerts.

Netherlands Bach Society
Shunske Sato, violin and direction
Marten Root, traverso
Diego Ares, harpsichord

0:00 Allegro
8:12 Adagio (affettuoso)
13:25 Allegro