L'arpa Festante, Christoph Hesse Johann Christoph Pez: Duplex Genius (2024)

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (21 June 1732 – 26 January 1795), the ninth son of Johann Sebastian Bach, sometimes referred to as the "Bückeburg Bach". He is not to be confused with other similarly-named members of the Bach family.

The German-born English transplant Johann Christoph Pepusch was an older contemporary and colleague of George Frederick Handel, and he is best remembered for arranging the music of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. His involvement in London's music scene also led him to compose his own works for the stage, such as the masque Venus and Adonis, a vehicle for two of the leading sopranos of the day, Jane Barbier and Margarita de L'Epine.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach is certainly the least famous composing son of the great Johann Sebastian. He spent his life at the court of Bückeburg in Germany as court composer. His style may be loosely described as a fusion between his two brothers Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian: Galante Stil occasionally infused with daring harmonic and dynamic effects.

This recording of works by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, the least well-known of the four composer sons of Bach, marks the completion of the FBO’s highly acclaimed series “Bach’s Sons” on the Carus label. Unlike his prominent brothers Carl Philipp and Johann Christian, the “Bueckeburg Bach” never ventured beyond the provinces, serving as a court musician for forty years at the court of the Count of Schaumburg-Lippe. But his music is anything but provincial. It moves impressively between the styles of both brothers, combining the artistic demands of Carl Philipp with the light Italian tone of the younger brother Johann Christian, and so defies easy musical categorization.

The name 'Chandos anthems' is most frequently associated with Handel, but he was not the first, nor the last, composer in the extravagant household of James Brydges, the Duke of Chandos from 1719. Working concurrently with Handel at Cannons was the Berlin native, Johann Christoph Pepusch?nearly 20 years Handel's senior?who took over as Director of Music by early 1719 whereupon he adopted a distinctly Venetian approach to sacred music, in the manner of Lotti and Vivaldi.

This older Bach’s spare textures and bold chromatic effects make him a highly individual voice in this penitential but deeply moving music. Peter Harvey’s bass and Claire Wilkinson’s mezzo shine out from this “choir” of soloists, but Gardiner is the driving force.

Johann Gottlieb Graun became a member of the small court orchestra of the Prussian Crown Prince Frederick in Ruppin in 1732, which Carl Heinrich also joined in 1735. With Friedrich's ascension to the throne in 1740, Johann Gottlieb was appointed concertmaster and Carl Heinrich kapellmeister of the royal court. Johann Gottlieb remained until the end of his life closely linked to Frederick the Great, as concertmaster and chamber musician. Whilst his brother Carl Heinrich became an important figure at the new Berlin Court Opera, Johann Gottlieb strongly influenced the musical life of Berlin and early classicism in general as a violinist and composer.

Johann Christoph Pezel was born in what is now Poland, but spent much of his career in Leipzig, Germany, occupying various positions within the city's musical hierarchy. Pezel's Opus Musicum Sonatarum was published in Frankfurt in 1686, and he dedicated it to the councils of the “Hexapolis,” the six principal cities of Upper Lusatia (Bautzen, Gorlitz, Lauban, Kamenz, Lobau, and Zittau). Opus Musicum Sonatarum is a collection of twenty-five sonatas for two violins, three violas, bassoon or violone, and basso continuo.

Another reason to take a look into the Glossa Cabinet series comes with the reappearance of Marcello Gatti’s delightful interpretation of transverse flute Sonatas by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (son number 9 of JS), who worked in the courtly surroundings of Bückeburg in central Germany in the last part of the 18th century. These sonatas were composed around the time of JCF’s visit to see his brother Johann Christian in London in 1778 and combine the Italian galante style with the sensitivity of the Empfindsamer Stil. Elegantly performed by Gatti and Giovanni Togni, fortepiano, with cellist Giovanna Barbati joining for a Trio in D major (from the middle of the 1780s), the recording was captured in sound by Sigrid Lee and Roberto Meo.

Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello (also Bressonelli; ca. 1690, Bologna – 4 October 1758, Stuttgart) was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist. His name is mentioned for the first time in a document from 1715 in which the Maximilian II Emanuel appointed him violinist in his court orchestra in Munich. Soon after, in 1716, after the death of Johann Christoph Pez, he got the job of music director and as a maître des concerts de la chambre at the Württemberg court in Stuttgart. In 1717, he was appointed Hofkapellmeister.