Listening to this disc will certainly blow the cobwebs away. On second thoughts, the experience could more accurately be described as blasting the cobwebs away. Superbly performed interpretations breathe life and a sense of adventure into this music that ranges from late Baroque to the Classical period.

J.S. Bach’s talent seems to flow in his grandson’s blood at least as strongly as in any of his sons. Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach’s two symphonies (as well as the vocal works featured here) inhabit the sound-world of mid- to late Mozart, albeit without the brilliance (in every sense of the word). This Bach’s wind writing is tasteful, and makes good use of the (then) newly-arrived clarinet. The Andante of the C major symphony is quite beautiful, with a dolefully sweet oboe solo throughout the movement. The period strings of Das Kleine Konzert are lively, clean, and in tune, although the violin soloist is not quite up to the rapid passage-work at the end of the G major symphony.

Daniil Trifonov returns with an album dedicated to J.S. Bach. He explores the scientific, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of Bach's cosmos, his faith, family, and world. Centered around Bach's mystical masterpiece, The Art of the Fugue, Trifonov's project investigates the man behind the myth - a genius of humility and humor, whose loves, losses, and devotion inspired what Trifonov calls "some of humanity's most emotionally rich and fascinatingly sophisticated expressions in music."

Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Koln s recordings of J. S. Bach are classics of the Early Music movement. Equally revelatory is their championing of the music of the Bach family stretching from the mid-17th to the late 18th century: a treasure trove of vocal and instrumental works. Here they are complete in a single box for the first time, with Magdalena Kozená a stunning soloist.

Die Sechs Duette F54-59 wurden von Wilhelm Friedemann Bach ursprünglich für zwei Flöten geschrieben. Für diese Aufnahme ließen sich Omar Zoboli und Sergio Delmastro von der melodischen und rhythmischen Raffinesse der Werke inspirieren und arrangierten diese für ihre diversen Leib- und Mageninstrumente. Der Einsatz unterschiedlicher Klangfarben von Oboe, Englischhorn, Saxophon Klarinette und Bassetthorn lässt die Kompositionen dabei in ganz neuem Licht erscheinen.

The novelties here are the Mattheson works, the first two fully composed, the third a figured-bass exercise from Mattheson's treatise on the subject. The sonata is a dramatic, virtuoso outing in the Italian style; the suite, ostensibly more french in character, retains a typical German heaviness.

The well-known painting of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach reproduced on the cover of this CD must be one of the most immediately attractive composer portraits ever made. The wide-brimmed hat, the fur-lined coat, the wisp of steely hair and, above all, the reddened but unmistakably genial face (displaying, if I’m not mistaken, his father’s nose) suggest a man one would want to accompany straightaway to the nearest coffee-house. But Friedemann was actually a little more complex than that, both as a person who could be lazy and argumentative and as a talented musician torn between the styles of the late baroque and early classical periods, so it is perhaps no surprise to find that there is considerable variety in the music on this disc.

The musical world of the eighteenth-century court at Dresden is characterised by its diversity: Vivaldi, Hasse, Ristori and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach were all highly esteemed. The Zürcher Barockorchester perform selections from this demanding repertoire and successfully transport listeners to Dresden’s vibrant Augustan era.

This set is a rerelease of recordings made in 1991, not previously reviewed in Read more . In the order listed in the header, these four cantatas were composed for the following festal days in the liturgical church calendar: the Third Sunday in Advent, the Feast of St. John the Baptist, Pentecost, and Easter Sunday. All stem from the time of the younger Bach’s increasingly fractious and unhappy years as director of music in Halle, which spanned 1747 to 1764. The first of these is definitely known to have been written in 1749; the dates for the others are less certain, but stem from the mid to late 1750s.

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710‐1784) was the first son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. He was taught by his father and soon he became proficient on several instruments. Although he was an organist for 20 years in Halle, he was one of the first musicians who strived for an independent life, trying to earn his living as a composer, performer and teacher. He struggled all his life, not helped by his difficult character, and he died in poverty in Berlin, totally forgotten.

Les Violons du Roy. Chamber orchestra based in Quebec City, composed of 15 permanent musicians, founded in 1984 by principal conductor Bernard Labadie. Its name comes from that of the court orchestra of the Bourbon kings of France in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Here is another of Gustav Leonhardt's mixed programmes but this one, unlike the earlier European grand tour ((CD) 426 352-2PH, 4/90), is confined to German repertory and is played not on the harpsichord but on the clavichord. The earliest music is by Christian Ritter, who was born in the mid seventeenth century and who was based mainly in Halle where he was employed as an organist. His Suite in F sharp minor is an appealing work somewhat in the manner of Froberger; the opening Allemande is beautifully written and well sustained and the poignant Sarabande an affecting piece built on a descending octave pattern which gives it the character of a lament.

It was the Bachs who launched the harpsichord on its career as a concerto soloist and the sons did not wait to follow in father's wake; the first of Carl Philipp Emanuel's 52 concertos, spanning more than 50 years, probably just predates the first of JSB's. Neither did they pursue the practice of having more than two soloists. In his F major Concerto (the numbering of which differs from that given in Grove: H410, Wq46) CPE accepts the formal plan of the ritornello but not the concept of its unity of thematic mood; he introduces a diversity that is more like that of the exposition in sonata form—though the resemblance ends there, and the element of contrast is maintained in the 'solo' episodes, not derived from the ritornello material.

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784), considered by many the most talented of J. S. Bach's children, is also the least known of the great master's three composing sons. In contrast to his father's orderly, wholesome and responsible lifestile, Wilhelm Friedemann's was erratic and characterized by excesses. Add to that a puzzling inability to "market" himself, and you will easily understand why this genius ended his life in abject powerty.