The other Bachs

[smittims]

Listening to a lovely work by Johann Bach (1604-1673) on 'Through the Night' today at about 4.15 am (GMT) made me wonder if Radio 3 had done an exploration of the various less-famous Bachs. CPE has had a lot of exposure, and rightly, considering his importance, but this little cantata. most imaginatively performed with the antiphonal groups placed in aural perspective, suggests that there are treasures to be uncovered.

After JS, JC had been my favourite Bach. How about you?

[Serial_Apologist]

Listening to a lovely work by Johann Bach (1604-1673) on 'Through the Night' today at about 4.15 am (GMT) made me wonder if Radio 3 had done an exploration of the various less-famous Bachs. CPE has had a lot of exposure, and rightly, considering his importance, but this little cantata. most imaginatively performed with the antiphonal groups placed in aural perspective, suggests that there are treasures to be uncovered.

After JS, JC had been my favourite Bach. How about you?

It's fascinating to see the remarkably rapid transition from Baroque to early Classical traced through the Bach family alone. Radio 3 could easily do a series on this theme alone!

[gurnemanz]

Coincidentally, we went to an excellent concert at the Wiltshire Music Centre last Saturday, entitled 'Inspiring Bach'. Link. Expert performances from 12-strong Spiritato Choir and Marian Consort including 4 splendid valveless trumpets.

Uncle JC was admired by JS and we had a couple of beautiful and inventive pieces by him. We heard his 'Mit Weinen hebt sich’s an" at an Eliot Gardiner concert a few years ago, a lovely piece ... with the less than cheerful message that life begins with weeping. So it goes on through life, then we die.

On Youtube

[RichardB]

It's fascinating to see the remarkably rapid transition from Baroque to early Classical traced through the Bach family alone.

Although actually, CPE or JC or WF are no more "transitional" than Schoenberg or Monteverdi: their music is fully realised in itself, not just suspended between one stylistic period and another!

[mopsus]

Coincidentally, we went to an excellent concert at the Wiltshire Music Centre last Saturday, entitled 'Inspiring Bach'. Link. Expert performances from 12-strong Spiritato Choir and Marian Consort including 4 splendid valveless trumpets.

Uncle JC was admired by JS and we had a couple of beautiful and inventive pieces by him. We heard his 'Mit Weinen hebt sich’s an" at an Eliot Gardiner concert a few years ago, a lovely piece ... with the less than cheerful message that life begins with weeping. So it goes on through life, then we die.

On Youtube

I think JEG has been trying to raise his profile. At a funeral a couple of weeks ago I sang his 'Es ist nun aus mit meinem Leben' and wondered why I had gone so long without knowing this beautiful piece. The deceased had been involved with the financial side of the Monteverdi Choir, and on hearing it at one of their concerts earmarked it for his funeral.

[MickyD]

This 2 disc set from Cantus Colln came out in 2003 and has since been reissued on Harmonia Mundi Gold. It features a goodly selection of the Bach family - Johann, Heinrich, Johann Christoph, Georg Christoph, Johann Michael, finishing up with Johann Sebastien. A fascinating collection of manuscripts, first published in 1935. The originals were lost during World War II but later located in archives in Kiev. This recording gives the complete collection. Well worth getting hold of!

[RichardB]

There was also a similar selection recorded by Musica Antiqua Köln and released in 1986. I remember the works by Johann Christoph being particularly fine.

[Bryn]

There was also a similar selection recorded by Musica Antiqua Köln and released in 1986. I remember the works by Johann Christoph being particularly fine.

Discs 16 to 21 in the recently released MAK box. Queued, though not yet cued, up for listening.

[gurnemanz]

A lot of them.

[smittims]

Wow! Thanks for that family tree. I did hear once there were 53 who are known to have composed something.

I still treasure what must have been a pioneering disc by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia orchestra, not the first names that spring to mind, of symphonies by JS Bach's sons.

[richardfinegold]

Although actually, CPE or JC or WF are no more "transitional" than Schoenberg or Monteverdi: their music is fully realised in itself, not just suspended between one stylistic period and another!

Presumably no composer actually aspires to be remembered as a transitional figure.
On the subject of the “Other Bachs” some of the most enjoyable discs in the large MAK box are dedicated to them

[RichardB]

Presumably no composer actually aspires to be remembered as a transitional figure

To a composer the term is pretty meaningless. You live through a certain period of history and respond to its changes in ways that themselves evolve, unless you decide to take a deliberately anachronistic stance, which in a way comes to the same thing, although usually with less imagination involved...

I suppose that like many people my introduction to the other Bachs was the record made by the massed forces of the Concentus Musicus and Leonhardt Consort, containing concertante works by CPE, JC and WF. I still listen to it often. I don't think Goebel's recording of the CPE concerto for piano and harpsichord has the same magic about it.

[MickyD]

I do so agree with you, Richard...that early collection is indeed very special. Mind you, Goebel's recording of the CPE Bach concerto for 2 harpsichords is terrific, in my opinion.

[Bryn]

To a composer the term is pretty meaningless. You live through a certain period of history and respond to its changes in ways that themselves evolve, unless you decide to take a deliberately anachronistic stance, which in a way comes to the same thing, although usually with less imagination involved...

I suppose that like many people my introduction to the other Bachs was the record made by the massed forces of the Concentus Musicus and Leonhardt Consort, containing concertante works by CPE, JC and WF. I still listen to it often. I don't think Goebel's recording of the CPE concerto for piano and harpsichord has the same magic about it.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8261010--double-concertos-by-bachs-sons

Also on QOBUZ.

[kindofblue]

This is fascinating, thanks! Had not realised how far back the musical side of the famly had preceded JS.