Volume 2
Brandenburg Concertos II

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHThe greatest Baroque Composers:

Johann Sebastian Bach
- Brandenburg Concertos No. 4-6
- Suite No. 2, BWV 1067

KAMMERORCHESTER CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH
conducted by PETER SCHREIER

CD 454 404-2 DDD
PHILIPS

- His widowed mother had run a thrifty household and kept only three musicians for her musical entertainment. When her 21-year-old son, Prince Leopold, took over the government of his 5000 or so subjects in Cöthen, Saxony, he engaged highly qualified musicians from Berlin and extended the ensemble to 17 musicians. Each could play several instruments. At their head he appointed Johann Sebastian Bach, who had just been dismissed in disgrace in Weimar, and awarded him the second highest salary paid by this mini-state. He was truly grateful to his Kapellmeister when he was allowed to take his place among the professionals and play the sonorous gamba. In the castle's concert hall, Leopold and friends then performed before a small aristocratic audience the so-called "Brandenburg" Concertos: skilfully written light music which met entirely with the taste of the man who commissioned it.