Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048

Three string sections — violins, violas, cellos — enter in conversation, passing musical ideas back and forth with the kind of democratic energy that was unusual for baroque orchestral writing. There is no harpsichord continuo part in the third Brandenburg; the texture is purely string-driven, and that gives it an unusual transparency and warmth. The opening Allegro moves with a brisk, confident stride, the three groups weaving around each other in an intricate exchange that rewards close listening — you can follow any single line and find it interesting, or you can let the combined texture wash over you and experience something entirely different. The middle movement is famously abbreviated: just two chords, an Adagio of perhaps three seconds, serving as a formal punctuation mark rather than a contemplative space. The finale has the rhythmic snap of a gigue, a dance-derived energy that makes the body want to move. Bach composed these six concertos as a kind of audition package, presenting them to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721 — the Margrave apparently never performed them, and the manuscripts sat largely forgotten for over a century. The third is the most purely joyful of the set, free of the solo display that characterizes some of its companions, everything in service of the collective. Put it on when you are cooking, or beginning something, or when the day feels genuinely good.