Symphonies of the Bach Family
Wilhelm Friedemann BACH (1710-1784)
Symphony in D minor, BR-WFB C Inc. 1 [8:51]
Carl Philipp Emanuel BACH (1714-1788)
Symphony in E-flat major, Wq/H deest [8:44]
Symphony in C major, Wq/H deest [8:51]
Symphony in E minor, Wq 177 (1759) [10:05]
Johann Christoph Friedrich BACH (1732-1795)
Symphony in D minor [8:16]
Johann Ernst BACH (1722-1777)
Symphony in B-flat major [6:49]
Johann Ludwig BACH (1677-1731)
Concerto for Two Violins and Two Oboes in D major [7:12]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Sinfonia in D major, BWV1045 [5:43]
Berliner Barock Solisten/Reinhard Goebel
rec. 2021, Kammermusiksaal, Philharmonie Berlin
First recordings: WF, CPE: E flat & C, JE
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
HÄNSSLER CLASSIC HC21029 [63:37]
The Bach family is vast and on this disc we have music of six members: Johann Sebastian, three of his sons and two relatives from ancillary lines, one of those a few years older than Johann Sebastian. Four of the eight works are first-time recordings, but it is still a bit uncertain whether the first three of them were written by Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel. The excellent liner notes investigate this at some length, even though it is not an open-and-shut case. Not that it matters very much as long as it is good music – and it is.
A couple of years ago Reinhard Goebel conducted Dalasinfoniettan, the professional orchestra in the region of Dalecarlia where I live, in a programme with members of the Bach family. Due to the Corona restrictions, I wasn’t able to go to the concert, which I of course regret, but this disc came as a welcome substitute. Like Dalasinfoniettan, Berliner Barock Solisten play on modern instruments but follow the historically informed trend, of which Reinhard Goebel has been a pioneer ever since he founded Musica Antiqua Köln, which he led for 33 years. Today he has changed opinion. “I see the future of Baroque orchestral music in the hands of modern ensembles – the fetish of the ‘original instrument’ has had its day, but not the profoundly trained professional who guides an orchestra into the deeper dimensions of the composition. For it isn’t the instrument that makes the music, but the head!”, he says in the notes.
Though I have had a positive attitude to the historical instrument trend ever since I in the early 1960s bought August Wen4zinger’s Archiv recording of the Brandenburg concertos, I don’t mind modern instruments in this repertoire, and the Berliner Barock Solisten are a premium class band, playing with precision and tremendous force, and a rhythmic sweep that is irresistible. No half measures here! Even if I hadn’t seen Wilhelm Friedemann’s name heading the opening the D major Sinfonia, I would have guessed it, guided by the quirkiness of the first movement. I might have hesitated a little when I heard the slow movement, but the finale was the confirmation I needed.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is attributed to the next three sinfonias. The one in E flat has all his hallmarks, and we have to be grateful to Reinhard Goebel for rescuing it from oblivion. Even more so for the one in C. The allegro is a whirlwind, played with enormous zest, the andante e piano is calm resting-point before the dancing presto movement rounds off this wholly delightful sinfonia, which takes less than eight minutes. The third of C P E Bach’s sinfonias is a better-known quantity. Composed in 1759 it is a darker, more dramatic and gloomier work in E minor, which, many years later, Johann Adolph Hasse recommended to Charles Burney as “the best he had heard in his life”.
Johann Sebastian’s second youngest son, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, led a less spectacular life than his better-known brothers, spending four decades as court musician in Bückeburg, where his patron had a liking for Italian music, which also spilled over to J C F. His D minor sinfonia seems inspired by Neapolitan opera, and the central andante amoroso has a sweetness that is very becoming. The work was discovered only a few decades ago in the archives of the Moravian Church
in North Carolina, where also the only surviving symphony of Johann Ernst Bach was found. J E Bach was the son of Johann Bernhard Bach and was Johann Sebastian’s godson. All the previous works on this disc were composed for strings and basso continuo, but J E adds two fagots for an ampler sound. This is the fourth world premiere recording.
Then follows the oldest Bach in this survey, Johann Ludwig, born 1677. His is not a symphony but a concerto scored for two violins, two oboes, strings and basso continuo. It is in three movements, like all the others, and I admired particularly the short adagio with the oboes in the lead – a memorable piece. The even shorter finale is charmingly bubbling over with high spirits.
The last word goes deservedly to Johann Sebastian, and the sinfonia in D is a festive piece with trumpets and timpani. The origin is unclear, but it is supposed to have been the introduction to a choral work which has not survived. It is also believed that it is not an original composition by Bach but an arrangement of someone else’s work, maybe the first movement of a violin concerto – considering the virtuoso violin solo. Whoever “someone else” was, it is a riveting pulse-raiser that brings this programme to a jubilant end. Not a single well-known work within eyesight, but a life-enhancing excursion off the beaten track that should appeal to every baroque enthusiast.
Göran Forsling
Previous review: David Barker
