Matan Nistor

Written for London audiences in 1770, Johann Christian Bach’s only extant oratorio, Gioas, Re di Guida, is a proverbial curate’s egg. Attempting to please both those weaned on Handel and those hoping to hear the oratorio genre given a rococo makeover, it failed to please either. Such was London’s veneration for the spirit of Handel that Bach was booed when he dared play an organ interlude between acts; and despite George III’s patronage, the work was soon neglected. Audiences of the time simply did not want to hear Italian operatic conventions in their oratorios.

Johann Christian Bach (September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782) was a composer of the Classical era, the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is sometimes referred to as 'the London Bach' or 'the English Bach', due to his time spent living in the British capital, where he came to be known as John Bach. He is noted for influencing the concerto style of Mozart. Johann Christian Bach was born to Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach in Leipzig, Germany. His distinguished father was already 50 at the time of his birth, which would perhaps contribute to the sharp differences between his music and that of his father. Even so, his father first instructed him in music and that instruction continued until his death…

When Beethoven introduced himself to the Viennese public, playing his own First Piano Concerto in 1795, the other works in the concert were the first half of this oratorio and a symphony by the same composer, who in the following year was appointed Director of Music at the court of Prince Lobkowitz. Antonio Cartellieri, although his father was an Italian, was born in Danzig in 1772, which makes him a fairly close contemporary of Beethoven's. Abandoned at 13 by his parents after their divorce he must have had sufficient talent to attract aristocratic patronage, which enabled him to study in Vienna with Salieri and Albrechtsberger. He died, however, at 35, and until now not even scholars researching Beethoven's early career seem to have taken any interest in him.

Clarinetist David Orlowsky is widely recognized as a musician of tremendous expressiveness and depth, and is acknowledged worldwide as one of today's leading interpreters of the clarinet repertoire ranging from Mozart to Golijov to klezmer. An exclusive Sony recording artist, David has recorded eight discs which have received three ECHO Klassik awards and won him a large and devoted following. David Orlowsky has appeared both as a soloist and with his trio (the David Orlowsky Trio) at a number of major festivals and venues, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Lucerne Festival, Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, the Philhamonie Berlin, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall, with orchestras such as the Netherland Radio Philhamonic Orchestra and the German Chamber Orchestra.

Clarinetist David Orlowsky is widely recognized as a musician of tremendous expressiveness and depth, and is acknowledged worldwide as one of today's leading interpreters of the clarinet repertoire ranging from Mozart to Golijov to klezmer. An exclusive Sony recording artist, David has recorded eight discs which have received three ECHO Klassik awards and won him a large and devoted following. David Orlowsky has appeared both as a soloist and with his trio (the David Orlowsky Trio) at a number of major festivals and venues, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Lucerne Festival, Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, the Philhamonie Berlin, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall, with orchestras such as the Netherland Radio Philhamonic Orchestra and the German Chamber Orchestra.