Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 as concerto grosso: the first, third and sixth of these concertos have however no concertino versus orchestra distinction. The concerto grosso was a Roman invention, typically featuring two violins and a cello as concertino, with a string orchestra of multiple string instruments per part. Venetian composers seemed slow in adopting the genre, and as Bach and his German contemporaries rather turned to Venetian music they may have been hardly aware of it. The fifth "Brandenburg Concerto" seems intended to be performed with one instrument per part, as to not overpower the harpsichord with its relatively restrained volume, and was not
Organ concertos, Op. 4 (Handel) of his oratorios Esther and Athalia. During this period Handel prepared the 16 movements of the four organ concertos HWV 290-293, of which 10 are reworkings of previous compositions with the remaining 6 largely newly composed. HWV 292, completed in March 1735, contains the most new material, although even there the ritornello of the first movement is a borrowing from Act 1 of Alcina. It featured in the April performances of Athalia at Covent Garden. The other concertos were first heard in March, HWV 290 and 291 in Esther and HWV 293 in Deborah. Handel completed Alexander's Feast in January