Book Tickets

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047

Soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic
Mahan Esfahani harpsichord/director

Desperate to find a new job in 1721, Bach wrote a set of instrumental concertos and sent them off to the Margrave of Brandenburg in the hope of getting an offer. Had the Margrave so much as glanced at the score for Six Concertos With Several Instruments Bach had sent him, he might have sensed that the composer had delivered something superlative – the high-point of the composer’s project to expand the language of ensemble instrumental music and to assimilate varied European styles into his own, bettering them in the process. Charismatic harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani is our guide through the delectable smorgasbord that is Bach’s Brandenburgs.