In 1721 Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg-Schwedt’s long love affair with Italy was crowned by a cycle which brought him greater posthumous fame than any of his military or political achievements: six concertos in the Italian style sent to him from the Anhalt-Köthen court music director, Johann Sebastian Bach, whom he had met on the composer’s visit to Berlin in 1719. The master harpsichordist Bach performed for the Margrave at the Berlin court and the latter was so deeply fascinated by Bach’s music that he expressed the desire to possess several of the great master’s compositions. Bach made a personal compilation in an exquisite fair copy in his own hand of his finest, most magnificent and elaborate concertos in a single volume. The dedication was expressed in the courteous language of French as was the title: ‘Concerts avec plusieurs instruments’ (Concertos with several instruments). It was the Bach biographer Philipp Spitta who gave the collection its now common title ‘Brandenburg Concertos’ in the 19th century.

The Neumeyer Consort, founded in 2007, have gained an excellent reputation, not only through several CD recordings (Oehms classics, Christophorus) and productions for radio and television, but also through performances at numerous German festivals (i.e. Handel Festival Göttingen, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Rheingau Musikfestival). The ensemble finds regular cooperation with renowned early music specialists such as Andreas Scholl, Wolfgang Katschner, Michael Hofstetter, Konrad Junghänel and Ton Koopman.