Along with Vivaldi’s ‘Seasons’ or Beethoven’s ‘Fifth’, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos belong to those works that are so well-known that we risk taking them for granted. In order to (re-)discover the special qualities that can inspire us today, in 2001 Thomas Dausgaard and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra decided to contact six contemporary composer, asking each of them to compose a companion piece to one of the concertos. Seventeen years later, in 2018, it was time to present the result, with a performance at the BBC Proms of all the works – new and old. Recorded over a period of 18 months leading up to this event, the present boxed set provides a unique opportunity to experience six very different musical minds and idioms entering into conversation with Bach: Mark-Anthony Turnage, Steven Mackey, Anders Hillborg, Olga Neuwirth, Uri Caine and Brett Dean. Bach’s concertos are remarkable in that they are all scored for different instrumental combinations, and part of the brief to the group of composers was to reflect this. In her Aello, Olga Neuwirth has for instance used several ‘instruments’ to stand in for Bach’s harpsichord, including a synthesizer, a milk frother and a typewriter. Brett Dean, on the other hand, has stayed very close to Bach’s instrumentation, but has chosen to write his work as a preparation for Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 – an Approach to Bach’s extremely tight canonic writing. In performing the twelve works the orchestra and Dausgaard are joined by leading soloists including Clare Chase, Mahan Esfahani, Håkan Hardenberger, Pekka Kuusisto and Tabea Zimmermann.

In a deeply impressive and magnificent synthesis of gospel, jazz and contemporary music, Uri Caine tells the moving story of Octavius Catto, born in 1839 in South Carolina to free African-American parents. Catto's family moved to Philadelphia in 1844, where he studied, became an educator, humanities scholar, top cricket and baseball player, and civil rights activist. Together with his fellow campaigners, he achieved the abolition of slavery and discrimination in elections based on race, color, or former serfdom, as well as the creation of educational institutions for African-Americans. Catto was murdered by Frank Kelly during riots on election day in 1871. Octavius Catto: "We shall never rest at ease, but will agitate and work, by our means and by our influence, in court and out of court, asking aid of the press, calling upon Christians to vindicate their Christianity, and the members of the law to assert the principles of the profession by granting us justice and right, until these invidious and unjust usages shall have ceased."

Uri Caine and Stefan Winter met for the first time in New York 30 years ago. A musical adventure begins, there is no goal, but a path. Two outstanding jazz albums are created on JMT, then Caine breaks through the boundaries between jazz, classical and new music like no other artist on Winter & Winter. New, exciting, groundbreaking things are emerging. Caine embodies sound, composition and improvisation merge, Bach and Monk meet as in a completely new duo drama and conduct a dialogue. Caine: “When Stefan Winter asked me to choose music from the past to put on an album, I hesitated. The selection of works is as difficult as if someone asked you which of your children is your favorite child." Caine made a completely surprising choice: worth hearing, enlightening, remarkable!

The Brussels Philharmonic commissions a work from the American musician Uri Caine. Caine receives a "carte blanche". The result is the composition Agent Orange for orchestra and the improvisation artists Dave Liebman on saxophone, John Hébert on double bass, DJ Olive on turntables and Uri Caine on piano – jazz meets symphonic.

Caine: "The work consists of small chapters with different themes that express feelings like anger, frustration, but also peace. The work contains allusions to American music history. I take up the question of what holds the United States together. Someone living in NYC has a different background than someone from Oklahoma or Texas. We look at and judge each other in completely different ways. For me, the music is the only connecting element. I'm convinced of that, both as a musician and as a person."