Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No 5

The fair copy of the scores of the Six Concertos for various instruments sent by Johann Sebastian Bach to the Margrave in Brandenburg, dated March 21, 1721, was not commissioned to a scribe but written down by the proper hands of Bach, perhaps because he took a long time in sending the concertos, or because he had not composed them especially for the occasion. A little courtesy would settle all that minutiae.

Indeed, the concertos mainly were written during Bach's sojourn as court Kapellmeister of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Köthen between 1718 and 1720, and some were born as far back as 1713, at least in their earliest version. Furthermore, some of them were partially used by Bach, before and after 1721, in other compositions.

Christian Ludwig, the Margrave
The Margrave may have suspected that he was not the exclusive recipient, or he simply did not like the concertos, because although we are not sure that he acknowledged receipt, we do know that the Margrave filed them in his library and never had them performed by his musicians. Let us note in his defense that the number of musicians at his disposal needed to be increased.

At the death of the margrave, a list of the compositions in his possession resulted in a total of 177 works, among which were the Six Concertos that, according to some, were later sold for a ridiculous sum, or went to the possession of one of the heirs. Thus, the concertos were lost until 1849, when they were rediscovered in the archives of Brandenburg. The following year, they were published in a special edition made to commemorate the second centenary of the death of the great master of the Baroque.

Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050
Concerto No. 5 was probably written in 1719, to celebrate the acquisition of a new harpsichord for the court of Köthen that Bach had just made in Berlin. Three instruments have outstanding soloist participation: the flute, the violin, and the harpsichord, the latter standing out at the end of the first movement with a solo that announces the cadenza of the future concertos for solo instrument and orchestra.

Movements:
It is in three movements, following the traditional Vivaldian structure, fast-slow-fast:

00:00  Allegro
09:11  Affettuoso
14:59  Allegro

From the "Spiegelsaal" Castle Cöthen (Schloß Köthen), the Freiburger Barockorchester.