JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH

The Academy of Ancient Music is renowned for the authenticity of its performances, achieved through its meticulous study of the scores. Two of the works on this disc, for example, benefited greatly from this approach. Johann Christian Bach’s publisher, William Foster, was rather cavalier in his attitude to Bach’s music, and in the printed editions often amended the scores – omitting and amalgamating parts for purely commercial reasons. The parts were restored for this recording, enabling the listener to hear the music as its composer had intended.

A popular recording of works by the youngest son of the great Johann Sebastian Bach is now back in the catalogue and available at mid-price.



Johann Christian Bach was born in Leipzig on 5 December 1735. He was only fourteen when his brother died in 1750 but his half-brother, Carl Philipp Emanuel gave him a home in Berlin and taught him composition and keyboard-playing.
Berlin, however, had an Italian opera house, and young Johann Christian quickly fell under its spell, which led to a desire to widen his musical experiences further in Italy itself. He travelled there in 1754 and soon found himself financial support in the shape of a patron, Count Litta, and enrolled as a pupil of the great Padre Martini, who was later to teach Mozart. By 1760 he was one of the two organists of Milan Cathedral, had composed much church music and had produced his first opera; two years later his European reputation was such that his symphonies were being published in Paris, and he had been invited to spend a year in London, with a contract to write two operas for the King’s Theatre.
In the event, Bach made London his home, and dominated musical life there fore the next twenty years. It was in London, too, that he met and befriended the then eight-year-old Mozart; they met again in Paris when Mozart was twenty-two. Mozart, who could be very outspoken about other composers, nevertheless admired and respected two of his contemporaries: Joseph Haydn and Johann Christian Bach. ‘What a sad day for the world of music’ wrote Mozart after the latter’s death.

Excellent, well-played authentic performances…
…I have very much enjoyed this record and can recommend it warmly…
The performances live up to the reputation that the Academy of Ancient Music and Simon Standage have established in the past few decades. They are exquisite. The light clear articulation and technical mastery of these musicians is a thing of beauty.
'This 1993 recording is another welcome reissue from Chandos. Simon Standage and The Academy of Ancient Music give excellent performances of five orchestral works by the London Bach, including an operatic overture, three symphonies and a sinfonia concertante (Bach's Speciality) with cadenzas by Standage himself.'

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