BACH, JOHANN CHRISTIAN: Symphony in G Minor, WC 12 & Harpsichord Concerto in E-Flat Major, WC 59 - Camerata Zurich, Henriette Barbé

mhs 3323 johann christian bach liner notes

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, was in his lifetime better known than his father. He, not his father, was the "celebrated Bach" people spoke of. By far the most musically gifted of Johann Sebastian Bach's sons, Christian was also the one who deviated the most from his father's musical style. He had studied with his father, and on the latter's death in 1750 had become the pupil of his brother Carl Philipp Emanuel in Berlin. But at the Berlin Court Opera he became acquainted with a quite different kind of music, from composers like C. H. Graun, J. A. Hasse, and J. F. Agricola. It was probably in 1756, at the age of 21, that he went to Milan and fell under the spell of Italian opera. He then studied with the cosmopolitan Padre Martini in Bologna and, encouraged by the erudite Franciscan, com- posed church music. His operas met with great success. After converting to Roman Catholicism (he was probably motivated largely by expediency), he became organist at Milan cathedral, In 1762 he went to London as music-master to the queen, and spent the last two decades of his life there, earning worldwide celebrity. The young Mozart went to see him in London; the imprint of Christian's influence was to remain in Mozart's music for many years to come, Mozart's correspondence pays reverent homage to his London mentor.