Johann Friedrich Fasch is primarily known to modern audiences through a few trumpet pieces that have served for weddings and other assertions of respectability like public television programs. But, as with his somewhat older contemporary Telemann, he left a great deal of music, and it may be that he has been underestimated simply because performers haven't known where to begin with it. This 1987 disc of oboe and bassoon music from the former East Germany, with performers working from manuscripts held in the Saxon State ...
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Johann Friedrich Fasch is primarily known to modern audiences through a few trumpet pieces that have served for weddings and other assertions of respectability like public television programs. But, as with his somewhat older contemporary Telemann, he left a great deal of music, and it may be that he has been underestimated simply because performers haven't known where to begin with it. This 1987 disc of oboe and bassoon music from the former East Germany, with performers working from manuscripts held in the Saxon State Library in Dresden (Fasch's longtime residence), reveals a composer whose music blended old and new. The overall mood is a bit less free and easy than with Telemann, and there's a facility of contrapuntal writing, erupting at times into full-fledged fugues, which can make you think you're listening to Bach. But Fasch's emphasis on melody points to the influence of Vivaldi, and some of the music even suggests Fasch as a forerunner of the Classical style. Sample the Sonata in F major for...
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