For more than 300 years the Bach family was a dominant force—if not the dominant force—in German musical life; of the 80-plus members of this family, all but a dozen or so went into the family business. Some of them were privileged to hold some of the most prestigious musical posts in their homeland while others were more or less content to labor in less prominent and less fulfilling positions.
Johann Christian Bach (1735–82) was the youngest surviving son of the most famous of the Bachs, Johann Sebastian. He was only 15 when his father died, so he went to Berlin to live with his older brother Carl Philipp Emmanuel.
It was here that the young Bach came in contact with opera, and as the saying goes, it was all downhill from there. He left his native soil for Italy, becoming organist at the Milan cathedral in 1760. But his interest in opera resulted in his eventual abandonment of the organ loft and, following success in Turin and Naples, he again moved, this time to London following the commissioning of two operas for the King’s Theater in the Haymarket. He never returned to Milan, dying in England at the age of 47, poverty-stricken and forgotten.
In the mid 1760s, however, Christian Bach’s music took yet another direction as a result of joining forces with Carl Friedrich Abel. The result was a series of exclusive concerts that began in the Great Room at Spring Gardens and ended in 1775 at the Hanover Square Rooms (a venue that was London’s premiere indoor hall until the facilities fell to the wrecking ball in 1900). For these concerts, Christian Bach produced symphonies, simphonies concertantes , and concertos for a variety of instruments.
The symphonies on this two-disc release are representative of the music heard in the Bach-Abel concerts as well as in the London pleasure gardens like Vauxhall. Each symphony is in the fast-slow-fast format of the Italian opera sinfonia; some use material from several of Christian Bach’s opera overtures, others are from entirely new material, and still others combine the two sources. The most striking music is found in the odd-numbered symphonies in the op. 18 set. These exhibit the influence of the so-called Mannheim School, incorporating devices and techniques that were developed at the court of Elector Carl Theodore. Also, they were written for two orchestras, positioned at opposite sides of the stage. Both used strings, but the first added oboes and horns while the second supplemented the string section with flutes. The result must have been striking for the audience and still surprises with much effect today.
These performances date from 1976 and 1977 and were notable then for crisp articulation and energy, as well as their brisk tempos. For a while they owned the market, but a number of years later Naxos introduced the material heard here as well as the half-dozen op. 3 symphonies of Christian Bach by the Camerata Budapest under Hans-Peter Gmür, and the German label cpo entered the arena with striking period-instrument readings by Anthony Halstead and the Hanover Band.
I developed a quick liking for the Zinman recordings when they were originally released and am still partial to them. Even though there is a certain amount of suavity found in the Naxos readings, they lack Zinman’s passion and energetic approach, characteristics that I also found in Halstead’s discs. All three sets will still have a home in my library, but if I want to listen to modern instruments combined with edge-of-the-seat excitement and committed presentation, then I will go for Zinman and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.
FANFARE: Michael Carter
In the mid 1760s, however, Christian Bach’s music took yet another direction as a result of joining forces with Carl Friedrich Abel. The result was a series of exclusive concerts that began in the Great Room at Spring Gardens and ended in 1775 at the Hanover Square Rooms (a venue that was London’s premiere indoor hall until the facilities fell to the wrecking ball in 1900). For these concerts, Christian Bach produced symphonies, simphonies concertantes , and concertos for a variety of instruments.
The symphonies on this two-disc release are representative of the music heard in the Bach-Abel concerts as well as in the London pleasure gardens like Vauxhall. Each symphony is in the fast-slow-fast format of the Italian opera sinfonia; some use material from several of Christian Bach’s opera overtures, others are from entirely new material, and still others combine the two sources. The most striking music is found in the odd-numbered symphonies in the op. 18 set. These exhibit the influence of the so-called Mannheim School, incorporating devices and techniques that were developed at the court of Elector Carl Theodore. Also, they were written for two orchestras, positioned at opposite sides of the stage. Both used strings, but the first added oboes and horns while the second supplemented the string section with flutes. The result must have been striking for the audience and still surprises with much effect today.
These performances date from 1976 and 1977 and were notable then for crisp articulation and energy, as well as their brisk tempos. For a while they owned the market, but a number of years later Naxos introduced the material heard here as well as the half-dozen op. 3 symphonies of Christian Bach by the Camerata Budapest under Hans-Peter Gmür, and the German label cpo entered the arena with striking period-instrument readings by Anthony Halstead and the Hanover Band.
I developed a quick liking for the Zinman recordings when they were originally released and am still partial to them. Even though there is a certain amount of suavity found in the Naxos readings, they lack Zinman’s passion and energetic approach, characteristics that I also found in Halstead’s discs. All three sets will still have a home in my library, but if I want to listen to modern instruments combined with edge-of-the-seat excitement and committed presentation, then I will go for Zinman and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra.
FANFARE: Michael Carter
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