Johann Christian Bach Piano Concertos Op 13 N 4-6 & N 14

[notaire2]

No superfluous explanation is needed. Just listen to the beautiful and elegant music!

[MrGer2295]

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. He is noted for influencing the concerto style of Mozart.

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[MrGer2295]

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.

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[MrGer2295]

After his father's death, when Johann Christian was 15, he worked with his second-oldest half brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who was twenty-one years his senior and considered at the time to be the most musically gifted of Bach's sons.

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[MrGer2295]

He enjoyed a promising career, first as a composer then as a performer playing alongside Carl Friedrich Abel, the notable player of the viola da gamba. He composed cantatas, chamber music, keyboard and orchestral works, operas and symphonies.

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[MrGer2295]

Bach lived in Italy for many years starting in 1756, studying with Padre Martini in Bologna. He became organist at the Milan cathedral in 1760. During his time in Italy, he converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism. In 1762, Bach travelled to London to première three operas at the King's Theatre, including Orione on 19 February 1763.

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[MrGer2295]

That established his reputation in England, and he became music master to Queen Charlotte. He met soprano Cecilia Grassi in 1766 and married her shortly thereafter. She was his junior by eleven years. They had no children.

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[MrGer2295]

Johann Christian Bach died in London on New Year's Day, 1782. He was buried in the St. Pancras Old Church graveyard, St Pancras, London.

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[MrGer2295]

Johann Christian Bach's father died when Johann Christian was only fifteen.

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[MrGer2295]

This is perhaps one reason why it is difficult to find points of similarity between the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and that of Johann Christian. By contrast, the piano sonatas of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Christian's much older half brother, tend to invoke certain elements of his father at times, especially with regard to the use of counterpoint. (C.P.E. was 36 by the time J.S.

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[MrGer2295]

Johann Christian's highly melodic style differentiates his works from those of his family.

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[MrGer2295]

He composed in the Galante style incorporating balanced phrases, emphasis on melody and accompaniment, without too much contrapuntal complexity. The Galante movement opposed the intricate lines of Baroque music, and instead placed importance on fluid melodies in periodic phrases. It preceded the classical style, which fused the Galante aesthetics with a renewed interest in counterpoint.

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[MrGer2295]

The symphonies in the Work List for J. C. Bach in the New Grove Bach Family listed ninety-one works. A little more than half of these, 48 works, are considered authentic, while the remaining 43 are doubtful.

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[MrGer2295]

By comparison, the composer sometimes called "the Father of the Symphony," Joseph Haydn, wrote 104 symphonies. Most of these are not fully comparable to Johann Christian Bach's symphonies, because many of Johann Christian's works in this category are closer to the Italian sinfonia than to the late classical symphony in its most fully developed state as found in the later works in this category by Haydn and Mozart.

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[MrGer2295]

Using comparative duration as a rough means of comparison, consider that a standard recording of one of Bach's finest symphonies, Op. 6 No. 6 in G minor, has a total time of 13 minutes and 7 seconds (as performed by Hanover Band directed by Anthony Halstead), while Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony in a typical recording (by Ádám Fischer conducting the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra) lasts 23 minutes and 43 seconds.

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[MrGer2295]

J. C. Bach and the symphony -- It is clear that the listener of J. C. Bach's symphonies should come to these works with different expectations from the ones he or she brings to those of Haydn or Mozart. Concert halls today are frequently filled with the music of Haydn, and comparatively rarely with that of J. C. Bach. But J. C. Bach's music is more and more being recognized for its high quality and significance.

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[MrGer2295]

Legacy -- A full account of J. C. Bach’s career is given in the fourth volume of Charles Burney's History of Music.

There are two others named Johann Christian Bach in the Bach family tree, but neither was a composer.

Mozart esteemed J.C. Bach's music highly and arranged three sonatas from the latter's Op. 5 into keyboard concertos.

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[MrGer2295]

The Hanover Band founded by Caroline Brown in 1980 is a British period-instrument orchestra.

The group's website explains the name thus: 'Hanover' signifies the Hanoverian period 1714-1830 and 'Band' is the 18th century term for orchestra.

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[MrGer2295]

Its principal and guest conductors and directors have included Monica Huggett, Sir Charles Mackerras, Roy Goodman, Anthony Halstead, Nicholas McGegan, Richard Egarr, Nicholas Kraemer, Paul Brough, Andrew Arthur and Benjamin Bayl.

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[MrGer2295]

The Hanover Band has appeared at the Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), South Bank Centre, Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall, among many other venues. They have toured the UK many times, made ten tours of the United States and performed in Canada, Mexico, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Greece & Turkey.

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[MrGer2295]

The Hanover Band has made 166 recordings on Nimbus Records, Hyperion Records, Sony, EMI Eminence, RCA and other labels, including a complete cycle of the orchestral works of Johann Christian Bach for Cpo.

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[MrGer2295]

Anthony Halstead (born 1945 in Manchester, England) is a leading figure in the period-instruments movement. First known as a virtuoso on the natural horn, he has gradually moved into the role of conductor and has directed the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and most notably Hanover Band.

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[MrGer2295]

Halstead attended Chetham's School and the Royal Manchester College of Music, studying piano at first, as well as horn, organ, and composition.

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[MrGer2295]

At the suggestion of his horn teacher Sydney Coulston, Halstead began to specialise in the horn. He was first horn with the English Chamber Orchestra from 1972 to 1986, and has also been a member of other noted orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a professor at the Guildhall School of Music.

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[MrGer2295]

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Halstead served as both a member of the horn section and as horn soloist for several period-instruments groups and recorded widely.

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[MrGer2295]

His many recordings in both capacities include (as part of the orchestra) Beethoven's Five Piano Concertos under Christopher Hogwood (with Steven Lubin as the fortepiano soloist, L'Oiseau Lyre 421 408–2); the same composer's Ninth Symphony under Roger Norrington (EMI CDC 7492212);

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[MrGer2295]

Mozart's opera Idomeneo conducted by John Eliot Gardiner (Archiv 431 674–2); and (as horn soloist) chamber music by Johann Christian Bach with Trevor Pinnock and members of The English Concert (Archiv 423 385–2); and Mozart's Horn Concerti with Hanover Band directed by Roy Goodman (Nimbus NI 5104).

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[MrGer2295]

Halstead turned increasingly during the 1990s to conducting. Though most famous at that time as a horn virtuoso, he was no novice at leading an orchestra, having studied conducting with Sir Charles Mackerras and Michael Rose[1]; his professional conducting debut had been in 1976 directing the premiere of Elisabeth Lutyens' One and the Same.

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[MrGer2295]

For the record label CPO, Halstead embarked on a project to record all the orchestral music of Johann Christian Bach with Hanover Band on 22 CDs.

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[MrGer2295]

For the J.C. Bach keyboard concertos (CPO 999 930-2), Halstead himself performed the solo part on harpsichord (which he had studied with George Malcolm) and fortepiano, as well as directed the orchestra. With the same ensemble and record label, Halstead also recorded the Op. 17 symphonies of Carl Friedrich Abel (CPO 999 214–2).

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[MrGer2295]

No stranger to modern orchestras, Halstead has also directed the English Chamber Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as well as other ensembles.

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[MrGer2295]

No stranger to modern orchestras, Halstead has also directed the English Chamber Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as well as other ensembles.

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[MrGer2295]

He also conducted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in two of the three CDs of Luigi Boccherini's complete cello concerti released by Naxos Records (Vol. 1, catalogue number 8.553571, and Vol. 2, catalogue number 8.553572); in these recordings, Halstead's soloist was the cellist Tim Hugh.

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[MrGer2295]

Halstead's conducting has also been featured on many other recordings, and he has been invited to conduct in Scandinavia, Germany, Australia, Japan, and Spain. According to his website, he also is involved in private teaching and chamber music coaching, as well as serving as a guest professor in many conservatories in the United Kingdom and a prominent member of the British Horn Society.

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