The Brandenburg Concertos represent a pinnacle in the history of the Baroque concerto. This analysis places the concertos in their historical context, investigates their sources, traces their origins and discusses the changing traditions of performance.

One of the major keyboard composers of the early 20th century, Max Reger made numerous piano arrangements of Bach’s orchestral and chamber compositions, and these piano four-hand arrangements of the Brandenburg Concertos rank among his finest accomplishments in the genre. Not merely reductions of the orchestral scores, Reger’s four-hand versions recast the original masterpieces in a truly pianistic way, creating a fascinating and satisfying addition to the piano four-hand repertoire. Reproduced from a rare edition.

This new investigation of the Brandenburg Concertos explores musical, social, and religious implications of Bach's treatment of eighteenth-century musical hierarchies. By reference to contemporary music theory, to alternate notions of the meaning of "concerto," and to various eighteenth-century conventions of form and instrumentation, the book argues that the Brandenburg Concertos are better understood not as an arbitrary collection of unrelated examples of "pure" instrumental music, but rather as a carefully compiled and meaningfully organized set. It shows how Bach's concertos challenge (as opposed to reflect) existing musical and social hierarchies. Careful consideration of Lutheran theology and Bach's documented understanding of it reveals, however, that his music should not be understood to call for progressive political action. One important message of Lutheranism, and, in this interpretation, of Bach's concertos, is that in the next world, the heavenly one, the hierarchies of the present world will no longer be necessary. Bach's music more likely instructs its listeners how to think about and spiritually cope with contemporary hierarchies than how to act upon them. In this sense, contrary to currently accepted views, Bach's concertos share with his extensive output of vocal music for the Lutheran liturgy an essentially religious character.

Great masterpieces of intense, appealing originality, complex textures and development, and unprecedented instrumentation. Scores include No. 1 in F Major, No. 2 in F Major, No. 3 in G Major, No. 4 in G Major, No. 5 in D Major, and No. 6 in B-flat Major. Reprinted from definitive Bach-Gesellschaft edition.

J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos arranged for piano duet (one piano, four hands) by Max Reger. Titles: * Concerto No. 1 in F Major * Concerto No. 2 in F Major * Concerto No. 3 in G Major

These masterful works by the baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli (1653 1713) are among the earliest created in the concerto grosso form. They radiate a vibrant lyricism and crisp dignity of style that set them clearly apart from works by most earlier composers, who strove primarily for virtuoso brilliance and whimsy. This finely produced yet inexpensive paperback edition meticulously reproduces the scores of all twelve of Corelli's concerti grossi from a famous edition prepared by violinist Joseph Joachim and musicologist Friedrich Chrysander at the end of the nineteenth century. Corelli's concerti grossi for strings and continuo, most of them written in the last three decades of his life, were not published until 1714, the year following his death. Together with his other works four sets of trio sonatas and one set of violin sonatas they won him celebrity in his lifetime, great influence on other composers in the decades after his death, and a fervent admiration from musicians, critics, and audiences that has never declined through the centuries."

Originally published in 1963 and with a foreword by Yehudi Menuhin, this book begins with a study of the historical scene and the conditions under which Bach and his player colleagues lived, wrote and worked. It discusses the instruments then in use and required by Bach in these compositions and why certain passages in consequence took the shape or form they did. The book analyses Bach’s music and demonstrates how he built up whole movements from a single 3 or 4-note germ, and at the same time shows how the composer developed his own powers. How, for example, in addition to making any necessary changes to overcome technical deficiencies, he began to think about the musical suitability of passages given to certain instruments instead of just giving the same passage to any of the instruments he happened to have included in his concertante group. When it was first published the book was believed to be the only one in English to deal with the subject in such detail.