Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his fifth Brandenburg Concerto, BWV 1050.2, for harpsichord, flute and violin as soloists, and an orchestral accompaniment consisting of strings and continuo. An early version of the concerto, BWV 1050.1, originated in the late 1710s. On 24 March 1721 Bach dedicated the final form of the concerto to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg.
Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg, for whom Bach copied the concerto, portrayed by Antoine Pesne in 1710
Putative portrait of a young Bach
Antonio Vivaldi's autograph of a violin concerto, RV 314, dedicated to Johann Georg Pisendel, a violinist with whom Bach had made acquaintance in his Weimar period, and who worked in Dresden from 1712 until his death in 1755
A single-manual harpsichord conserved in the Bach House in Eisenach
Keyboard concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach
The keyboard concertos, BWV 1052–1065, are concertos for harpsichord, strings and continuo by Johann Sebastian Bach. There are seven complete concertos for a single harpsichord, three concertos for two harpsichords, two concertos for three harpsichords, and one concerto for four harpsichords. Two other concertos include solo harpsichord parts: the concerto BWV 1044, which has solo parts for harpsichord, violin and flute, and Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, with the same scoring. In addition, there is a nine-bar concerto fragment for harpsichord which adds an oboe to the strings and continuo.
Composer directing cantata from gallery in a church, engraving from Musicalisches Lexicon, Johann Gottfried Walther, 1732
Engraving of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1723, the year in which Bach was appointed there. He took up residence with his family in the Thomasschule on the left.
Johann Georg Schreiber, 1720: Engraving of Katherinenstrasse in Leipzig. In the centre is Café Zimmermann, where the Collegium Musicum held weekly chamber music concerts
A single-manual harpsichord conserved in the Bach House in Eisenach
