Brandenburg Concertos Piccolo concertato, 2 Violini, una Viola col Basso Continuo. "Instrumentation": two corni da caccia (natural horns), three oboes, bassoon, violino piccolo, two violins, viola, cello, basso continuo "Duration": about 22 minutes This concerto is the only one in the collection with four movements. The concerto also exists in an alternative version, Sinfonia BWV 1046a, which appears to have been composed during Bach's years at Weimar. The Sinfonia, which lacks the third movement entirely, and the Polacca from the final movement, appears to have been intended as the opening of the cantata "Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd", BWV
Brandenburg-Prussia after the victory at Fehrbellin and the Brandenburg-Prussian advance in Swedish Pomerania during the Scanian War, Frederick William decided to establish a navy. He engaged Dutch merchant and shipowner Benjamin Raule as his advisor, who after a first personal meeting with Frederick William in 1675 settled in Brandenburg in 1676 and became the major figure of Brandenburg-Prussia's emerging naval and colonial enterprise. The Brandenburg-Prussian navy was established from ten ships which Frederick William leased from Raule, and achieved first successes in the war against Sweden supporting the siege of Stralsund and Stettin and the invasion of Rügen. In Pillau (now