A Picnic with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 2
The Backstory
Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047
I'm Johann Sebastian Bach, and this is the backstory of my Brandenburg Concerto No 2. Here you'll learn how a trip to Berlin in 1719 to pay for a new harpsichord led me to send six concertos, this one among them, to a Margrave. If you fancy it, take a turn in the Trainer , where my fellow composers and I teach you on this site to recognize our pieces when they play.
---
A Trumpeter Who Needed Nerves of Steel
Let me start with the part that still makes players nervous, which is the trumpet. I wrote it for a clarino specialist, and it's now considered one of the most difficult trumpet parts in the whole repertoire. It sits high, it's bright, and it's out in the open, so there's nowhere for a tired player to hide. I asked a great deal of that man, and I do hope he had a good night's sleep before the performance.A Day Job With Good Musicians
From 1717 to 1723 I was Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold in Köthen, which meant I was in charge of the music at his court. A concerto like this one only works if the soloists are truly skilled, so I wrote with that kind of player in mind. Four very different soloists take the lead here: the trumpet, the recorder, the oboe and the violin. I enjoyed treating them like a small group of friends who all want to be heard at the same dinner table.A Harpsichord Errand in Berlin
In 1719 I traveled to Berlin on an errand connected with a new harpsichord by Michael Mietke. While I was there I met Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, and that meeting turned out to matter a lot. I suspect that is where the idea of sending him some music first took shape. It's funny how a trip about one instrument ended up giving a name to six concertos.A Very Polite Package
On 24 March 1721 I dated my dedication to the Margrave and sent the manuscript from Köthen to Berlin. I wrote out the score in my own hand and gave it a French title, "Six Concerts avec plusieurs instruments", which simply means six concertos for various instruments. Notice that I never called them the Brandenburg Concertos; that name was attached to them much later. I wanted the gift to look as handsome as it sounded, since you don't send a Margrave something scribbled on the back of an envelope.The Date on the Letter Isn't the Birthday
People often assume I wrote all six concertos in 1721, but that is only the date of the dedication. The collection was put together that year, and the pieces probably come from earlier. For this second concerto, the Netherlands Bach Society points to 1719 to 1720 at Köthen, and maybe even earlier in Weimar. Think of it like a box of chocolates I assembled for a gift: I made them at different times and only boxed them up together at the end.The Case of the Missing Quintet
There is a story that this concerto grew out of an earlier chamber-music version for a small group of five players, called "Concerto da camera in Fa Maggiore". If that version existed, it has been lost, so nobody can say for certain. What I can tell you is that the music feels built for a few brilliant soloists answering one another, which fits such a tale nicely. I'll leave it as a small mystery, since a good mystery never did a piece of music any harm.Three Courses, No Dessert Spoon Required
If you've never heard the word movement, think of it as one course in a meal, where the whole concerto is the dinner and each course has its own flavor. The first course, marked Allegro by habit rather than by my pen, is lively and gets everybody around the table. The second is the Andante, a slower and quieter course in D minor, played by the small group of soloists alone, with no trumpet in sight. The last is the Allegro assai, in F major again, which is faster still and sends you home in good spirits.The Margrave Keeps Very Quiet
You'd expect a grand dedication to bring a grand reply, but no answer or payment from the Margrave is documented. Nobody knows whether he ever had the concertos played at all. After he died in 1734, the concertos were not listed by name in his library inventory. I would like to think he enjoyed them, but I'm afraid I can only say that the story goes quiet here.Rescued Just in Time for an Anniversary
The manuscript was found again by Siegfried Dehn in 1849, long after my own lifetime. He had the concertos published the following year, 1850, which happened to be the centenary of my death. It's a rather fitting way for music to come back, because a hundred years is a long time to wait for an audience. From then on, this lively concerto with its brilliant trumpet was free to make its own way in the world.From a Court in Köthen to Outer Space
The first complete recording of all six concertos was made in 1936, directed by Adolf Busch. Since then, countless groups have played them, each with their own idea of how bright that trumpet should sound. The first movement of this concerto, played by the Munich Bach Orchestra under Karl Richter, is on the Voyager Golden Record. So a piece I sent to Berlin as a polite gift is now traveling among the stars, which is a far longer journey than any coach could have managed.---
I like to think about how far this music has traveled since I sent it off to Berlin in 1721. Nobody knows whether the Margrave ever answered or had the concertos played, and that still makes me smile a little. A gift that may have gone unanswered ended up outliving everyone who was in the room. Siegfried Dehn found the concertos in 1849, and they were published the following year, a hundred years after my death. Since then the first movement of this concerto has even gone out beyond our world, on the Voyager Golden Record, in a recording by the Munich Bach Orchestra under Karl Richter. It's a lovely thought that someone, somewhere far away, might one day hear that bright trumpet and the busy conversation of the soloists. Did you enjoy learning about the story behind Brandenburg Concerto No 2? I hope it gave you a new way of listening, and that you'll notice the small things next time, like who plays, who rests, and how the mood changes. There is still a great deal more to discover in this piece, from the way the four soloists answer one another to the quiet turn of the middle movement. If you'd like to keep exploring Brandenburg Concerto No 2, I invite you to click on the links provided. Take your time with them, and let the music keep surprising you.