One thing that has become apparent in the rescue operation involving the reputation of Johann Christian Bach is that with him lay a number of undiscovered secrets about the development of Western music in the eighteenth century. For one thing, Bach was the king of the sinfonia concertante, a stepchild of the Baroque concerto grosso that did not survive into the era of the romantics, except in rare works like Beethoven's Triple Concerto; both Haydn and Mozart paid tribute to the form in a work or two, but didn't invest as ...
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One thing that has become apparent in the rescue operation involving the reputation of Johann Christian Bach is that with him lay a number of undiscovered secrets about the development of Western music in the eighteenth century. For one thing, Bach was the king of the sinfonia concertante, a stepchild of the Baroque concerto grosso that did not survive into the era of the romantics, except in rare works like Beethoven's Triple Concerto; both Haydn and Mozart paid tribute to the form in a work or two, but didn't invest as much energy into developing as did Bach, who composed at least 16 of them. A judicious choice of four is featured on Resonance's J.C. Bach: 4 Symphonies Concertantes. These are modern instruments performances, and while the standard for J.C. Bach is mostly set with the period instrument crowd, his work easily survives the modern instrument treatment. Conductor Ross Pople shapes the four concerti using the music of Bach's pupil Mozart as a model, and this approach works very well for...
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