IF YOU WANT TO DRIVE AWAY the winter ‘blues’ (or Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD!) because, heaven knows, we could always use that in both the winter and in this crazy world), just listen to this second of the six Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). In fact, put it on repeat! This music cleans out cobwebs and the detritus that accumulates in the hard-drives of our souls. It puts smiles on the faces of its listeners — not a smug or superficial one but a deeply felt one so that one’s whole being smiles rather than just the mouth. In fact, they could even make you cry… with joy! You will have a spring in your step after listening to this music.

The six Brandenburg Concertos were composed by Bach between 1711 and 1720. They are all masterpieces in their own ways, arranged for different combinations of instruments. This second one has three movements and is for a quartet of soloists: Trumpet, oboe, recorder and violin. These are backed by two violins, a viola, a cello, a violone (a double-bass with frets), a bassoon and a lovely harpsichord. The ensemble sounds so rich and uplifting and, of course, Bach wrote everything to the glory of God. The amazing thing about these concertos is that after Bach’s death they were lost for almost 100 years and were found by chance in the Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany, in 1849. I wonder how many other great works have been lost to time?

Personally, I cannot listen to any baroque music on anything other than period instruments — those that were made in Bach’s time or are facsimiles of such — and played with performance practice from the time. You will see a cello without a spike, so just placed between the legs, brass instruments with no valves, a double-bass (violone) with frets, stringed instruments with no tuning pegs and bows more bowed than modern ones, and all the stringed instruments have no metal strings but only ones made out of gut, which produces a very different sound to modern strings. I have become a great fan of the playing of the musicians of the Netherlands Bach Society, which puts on authentic performances on period instruments. Their recordings of these concertos are exemplary. The tempi are perfect and the standard of playing is impeccable, not to mention the actual recording, which is very clear.

So, here is their performance of this 2nd of the Brandenburg Concertos. Just eleven minutes of your time. The video is below. So turn up your volume and listen. But it needn’t stop there. If you love this music, here is the YouTube playlist link to all six of the Brandenburg Concertos by the Netherlands Bach Society — all so different, with different combinations of instruments: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLecKPCyj4yRPXmmt0yFK3pF2HY8kux3RH . The video of the second is embedded right here:

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