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
Keyboard concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach timing matched the publication of the first ever collection of keyboard concertos, the widely acclaimed and well-selling Organ concertos, Op.4 of George Frederic Handel published in London and Paris in 1738. The harpsichord concertos were composed in a manner completely idiomatic to the keyboard (this was equally true for those written for two or more harpsichords). They were almost certainly originally conceived for a small chamber group, with one instrument per desk, even if performed on one of the newly developed fortepianos, which only gradually acquired the potential for producing a louder dynamic. The keyboard writing also conforms to a