Brandenburg Concerto No. 5

Bach composed the six Brandenburg Concertos in 1721 during his tenure in Cöthen, the Calvinist court where secular instrumental music took precedence over sacred music. Each concerto in the set explores a different combination of solo instruments and varying degrees of coordination between the soloists and the full orchestra (the latter group also known as the ripieno or ritornello). Concerto No. 5, in D major, is scored for solo flute, violin, and keyboard along with string orchestra.
There are several interesting aspects of this particular concerto. For one thing, Bach achieves a dovetailing of thematic heads and tails in the first movement that strongly influenced the concerto strategies of Mozart and Haydn. Moreover, the slow movement’s trio texture and the soloistic opening of the finale are both noteworthy. However, none of these features grabs our attention like the three-minute, unaccompanied keyboard cadenza in the first movement. Indeed, some musicians regard the piece as a keyboard concerto in all but name. For ears accustomed to Mozartian cadenzas, Bach’s achievement will hardly sound new, but such a structural interruption was unprecedented in ensemble concertos of the early 18th century. Bach’s patterned repetitions, sequences, and chromatic meanderings reflect many of the devices employed in his solo keyboard works. It is not the music per se that is remarkable, but the bold assertion of one voice above the many-voiced texture of the concerto grosso. Bach makes the keyboard part far more active rhythmically than the others throughout the first movement. Thus, from the start he plants a seed for the keyboard’s eventual liberation from the other players. Imagine Bach himself directing the first performance from the keyboard, simply indulging his improvisatory fancy at this point. Imagine, as well, the chagrin of flute and violin soloists during his display, awaiting a chance to somehow get back in, rolling their eyes as the “old man” goes off on another tangent.
The second movement is a broad meditation in B minor. Many phrases begin with canonic imitation between flute and violin, whereas the keyboard now stays modestly in the background. After cadences in closely related keys (D major, F-sharp major, E minor, and G major), Bach returns to the main theme in the home key for the final phrase. This is not the full-scale recapitulation that will become de rigueur in the later 18th century. Still, the rounded return of the main theme/key gives a satisfying degree of polish.
The finale opens with fugal imitation between flute and violin, joined after eight measures by the keyboard. The ripieno does not even come in until the first strong cadence in the secondary key. Even though the full ensemble plays a majority of the time thereafter, Bach’s opening paragraph for the soloists give them a marked prominence. At one point he flirts with another extended cadenza for solo keyboard. But by now the other players are wise to his tricks. They seize the first possible moment to jump right back into the action and carry the movement through to a strident, ensemble finish.

(c) Jason Stell