Johann Christian Bach

Orkesterverk

Johann Christian Bach was born in Leipzig 5 September 1735 and died in London 1 January 1782)

Johann Christian was the most cosmopolitan of all the Bach family, arguably the most versatile and certainly in the eighteenth century the most famous. He must have received a thorough grounding in music under the supervision of his father, Johann Sebastian, in whose house he lived for the first fifteen years of his life. Nearly five years in Berlin under the guardianship of Carl Philip Emanuel broadened his horizons and, above all, brought him into regular contact with opera. A further seven years in Italy exposed him to a multitude of new cultural experiences and laid the foundations of a reputation as an opera composer. This, in turn, took him in 1762 to London, which he found a congenial base for his activities as composer, performer and teacher for the rest of his life. His reputation, fostered by the publication of his works in all the main centres of Europe, brought him invitations to compose for the Mannheim court and the Paris Opera, two of the continent’s most important musical institutions. The London public however eventually tired of him and he died in debt at the age of 46 after a period of ill-health, unlamented by the British but mourned by his admirer and friend of nearly 20 years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Symphonies

Six Symphonies, op. 3

Thanks to the efforts of scholars like Jan LaRue and Barry Brook we now know much more about the early history of the symphony than we used to, but the definitive book on the subject has still to be written. Perhaps it never will be written because to research it properly would require the author not only to study the majority of the twenty thousand or so surviving works composed before 1800 but also to make scores of most of them first. It is one of those strange quirks of fate that while scores must have existed, if only the composers’ autographs, very few still survive and most of these early symphonies are only preserved in separate orchestral parts. It follows therefore that any comment about the early development of the symphony has to be offered modestly and received as provisional.

Then there is the additional complication of nomenclature. Symphonies in the mid-eighteenth century generally had three short movements, but so also did Italian opera overtures (Sinfonie). There is plenty of evidence – not least because they were published in sets of six specifically for use in concerts – that opera overtures were regularly performed outside the theatre, but not much proof that concert symphonies were used in dramatic performances. However, in archives throughout Europe there are works with no known connection to a dramatic work described as overtures and opera overtures described as symphonies. The distinctions between the two genres later increased, not least when opera overtures began to be written in one movement only, so that confusion was no longer possible. However at the time when Johann Christian Bach issued his collection of six concert works, op. 3, the terms were apparently still interchangeable. The French title page of the first edition describes them as Simphonies but in his advertisement for the publication and on the music pages themselves Bach called them overtures.

The advertisement appeared on Wednesday, 3 April 1765 in the London daily newspaper The Public Advertiser

NEW MUSIC
This Day are published,
Dedicated (by Permission) to His Royal Highness the
Duke of YORK
SIX new Overtures, in 8 Parts, as
they were performed at the Wednesday Subscrip-
tion Concert, in Soho-square. Price 75s.
Six Italian Duets, for two Voices and a Harpsichord
Price 10s. 6d.
Both composed by J. C. Bach, Music Master to
Her M(a)jesty
Printed for the Author, and Sold at his House in
King Square Court, Dean-street Soho; and at Mr.
Welcker’s Music Shop, Gerrard Street, Soho

The Wednesday Subscription Concert took place in the elegant surroundings of Carlisle House, Soho, a large mansion owned by Mrs Teresa Cornelys (1723-1797), a retired opera singer and former mistress of Casanova, who since 1760 had attempted to turn it into the centre of fashionable London life. Her Thursday evening assemblies consisted of music, card-playing and dancing and ran from seven in the evening to one or two the following morning. In 1764 she had added an annual series of Wednesday evening subscription concerts. These were initially given under the direction of Gioacchino Cocchi (c. 1720-after 1788) but the following year they were taken over by Bach and his friend and colleague, Carl Friedrich Abel (1718-1794), who alternated as director. The subscription was five guineas for ten concerts. This was then a large sum of money and it ensured a certain exclusivity among the patrons. A ladies committee, to whom all potential subscribers had to apply, further guaranteed that even wealthy undesirables were excluded. This exclusivity attracted the cream of London society, including some younger members of the Royal Family.

Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of York (1739-1767), a younger brother of the King and the dedicatee of Bach’s Op. 3, was almost certainly one of their number. He was a keen musician and had studied in Italy with the cellist and composer Francesco Zappa, whom he appointed his personal in the year of his death.

The ten concerts began on 23 January 1765 and ended on 27 March. No details of the programmes survive, except that we know from Bach’s advertisement that these present symphonies were performed. Whether they were specifically written for the series is perhaps debatable, given the existence of so many manuscript copies in Italian collections.

Symphony in D major, op. 3, no. 1 (C 1)

1. Allegro con spirito
2. Andante
3. Presto

The allegro con spirito begins boldy with a scale of D major in unison, which is briefly developed in the bass but is never heard again. A completely new idea then emerges, two long notes each over an accompaniment of eight short ones. The two-note motive rises from the second violins to the first and then to the oboes. While the oboes have it, the first violins take up a new motive. This is soon expanded to include a descending scale, which itself has already been anticipated a bar earlier by a rising scale in the bass. All this technical ingenuity has occupied little more than 20 bars and shows very clearly how carefully composed were these concert works. Unlike in some of the opera overtures, there is no noise-making for its own sake. Every note counts. The andante (in G major for strings alone) is firmly rooted in the melody of the first violins, doubled in thirds or sixths by the seconds for added intensity at the end of sections. Like the allegro con spirito, the presto begins with a unison motive but here it permeates the entire movement (it is used especially prominently in the bass). The whole movement has the character of a perpetuum mobile.

Symphony in C major, op. 3, no. 2 (C 2)

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Allegro assai

The opening allegro is in triple time (the first of only two in the set) and comforms most closely of any movement in the six symphonies to the classical sonata form described in the text books. There is a clearly defined “second subject” area and the unison motive heard at the opening, but transformed into the minor, is the starting point for a mini “development” section. The andante (in C minor for strings alone) offers mixture of pathos and consolation. The allegro assai bears a close family resemblance to the finales of Bach’s three comic opera overtures, but is longer and more finely detailed.

Symphony in E flat major, op. 3, no. 3 (C 3)

1. Allegro di molto
2. Andantino
3. Allegro

The allegro di molto begins in perhaps the most disappointing manner of any first movement in the set and Bach compounds this initial disappointment by repeating the opening material twenty bars into the movement. Yet on this apparently characterless material, also played twice in the “development”, he constructs a highly satisfactory movement. One ingredient contributing to this success is to end the first and second subject groups in bath exposition and development with related material (based on a melody in the bass). Another is to introduce some completely new material just before the reprise. Neither is a frequently-used or risk-free device, but here, in the hands of a composer of real talent, they are deployed to brilliant effect. In common with the best of his contemporaries, Bach also had the ability to compose heart-rending music in a major key. The andantino (where the strings are joined by two flutes) is a fine example of the fruits of this talent. The jolly allegro, on the other hand, has the character of an opera buffa overture finale, including one very operatic crescendo.

Symphony in B flat major, op. 3, no. 4 (C 4)

1. Allegro con spirito
2. Andante, sempre piano
3. Tempo di menuetto, più tosto Allegro

The allegro con spirito is a beautiful example of Bach’s ability to build a movement of classical proportions, using the principles of phrase-answer-contrast and, above all, repetition. The andante is dominated by an “unending” melody in the first violins. This is itself based on a multiplicity of melodic variations within the general rhythmic framework of weak-strong-weak, with the strong accent coming on the first beat of the bar. Just when this pattern might be threatening to become monotonous, Bach introduces phrases starting on the first beat of the bar. There are Minuet-Finales in three of Haydn’s symphonies but none in Mozart’s. They also occur three times in Bach’s (and a great deal more often in his Simphonies Concertantes). The minuet here is an elegantly detailed movement of ample proportions. There is no second minuet or Trio.

Symphony in F major, op. 3, no. 5 (C 5)

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Allegro assai

The first violins, piano, syncopated and over a running bass, begin the allegro in a highly original way. A new instrumental section joins in with every new bar and shortly after the whole orchestra is playing there is a general crescendo. There can be few openings like it in the symphonic music of the time. Paradoxically, this originality is off-set against passages later in the movement whose harmonic scheme would not be out of place in Corelli. In the andante (for strings alone) the two sets of violins, sometimes in thirds or sixths and sometimes in unison, weave a sensuous melody. The finale is a genial buffo movement, with just a touch of academicism in the second half.

Symphony in G major, op. 3, no. 6 (C 6)

1. Allegro assai
2. Andante
3. Allegro assai

Like the third work in this set, this symphony begins unpromisingly: five short notes in the violins, which are then silent until the third bar, followed by a descending scalic figure in the lower strings. Yet in both symphonies Bach produces a fine movement. This one is notable for the vigorous development of these two basic ideas in the second half of the movement. Bach provides more than adequate contrast to such characteristic figuration with somewhat different “second subject” material over a perpetuum mobile accompaniment in triplets in the second violins. The andante (for strings alone) is in Bach’s special key of G minor and, as usual, that stimulates him to produce a movement which belies his reputation as a composer of “superficial” music. The finale sounds as though it belongs in the theatre and, in fact, the motive with which it begins and the use to which it is put bears a remarkable likeness to the last movement of the overture to his third opera, Alessandro nell’Indie (Naples, 1762).

Six Symphonies, Hummel op. 6

Johann Christian Bach had his own chronological system of opus numbers for the works he published in London under the protection of a Royal Licence and Privilege granted to him for fourteen years on 13 December 1763. However, Bach chose not to issue all his music in London and his publishers in Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna and elsewhere all had numbering systems of their own. The result was (and is) needless duplication and complication. Bach’s own opus 6, for example, was a set of Italian canzonets for two sopranos and continuo, which he brought out in 1767. Towards the end of 1769 the Parisian publisher Huberty gave the some number to a set of six symphonies and, when he sold out and moved to Vienna, these were re-issued by his successors, still with the same number. For some obscure reason, when in 1777 Huberty issued a Viennese edition of Bach’s first set of keyboard sonatas (which Bach himself called Opus 5) he also called them opus 6. Meanwhile, 1770, the important Amsterdam publisher, Johann Julius Hummel, had brought out his own Johann Christian Bach, opus 6, a set of six symphonies only four of which are the same works as were published in Paris. To avoid further confusion, it is clear that the works on this disc need to be referred to as Six Symphonies, Hummel opus 6.

Hummel advertised his publication in the Dutch newspaper, s’Gravenhaegse courant, on 16 November 1770 but some of the symphonies at least seem to have been composed several years earlier. The fourth and fifth were advertised in 1766 in the first supplement to the Breitkopf thematic catalogue and the third in 1767 in the second supplement. Moreover, even earlier manuscript copies of two of the symphonies exist in Benedictine abbeys in Austria: a copy of the third dated 1762 (and attributed to C. P. E. Bach) is at Gottweig and a manuscript of the first dated 1764 is at Kremsmünster.

All six symphonies are in three short movements, fast-slow-fast.

Symphony in G major, Hummel op. 6, no. 1 (C 7a)

1. Allegro con brio
2. Andante
3. Allegro assai

The allegro con brio is a very restless movement, both in its use of key and thematic material. It is pitched in its main key for rather less than half its duration and only for three bars after the Exposition and before the Recapitulation There ore three quite substantial sections which appear once and then take no further part in the movement. The second of these sections is especially interesting because it offers a rare example in works of this period of the second violins taking over the main melodic role from the firsts, while they and the violas merely provide an accompaniment of repeated notes. Every one of these six symphonies has a slow movement marked andante. They are, nevertheless, all different in character. The movement here is for strings alone and is dominated by the two violins, gently going about their business in unison, sixths and thirds with a little assistance from time to time in propelling the momentum forward from the lower strings. The allegro assai has the basic character of a 3/8 finale of a contemporary opera overture, but the predominantly cheerful tone is counterbalanced by a significant section in the minor mode in the middle.

Symphony in D major, Hummel op. 6, no. 2 (C 8)

1. Allegro spiritoso
2. Andante
3. Allegro spiritoso

The first of the two movements marked allegro spiritoso is perhaps the least characteristic example of Bach’s style in all the set. It shares a lack of melodic distinction with a number of the manuscript symphonies attributed to Bach. Yet it is not without charm. It makes its effect through a skilful use of phrase repetition, the crescendo and appealing textures, often based on two violas. The andante too is built on patterns, but the range of textures is widened by the use of flutes (replacing the oboes of the outer movements) and horns and a more prominent role for the horns. The viola makes a rare appearance as a melody instrument in bar 10. There is also attractive use of sequential phrases towards the end of each half of the movement. The last movement is another cheerful 3/8 finale, but, with a prominent passage for the horns just before the return of the opening material, perhaps more redolent of the hunting field than the theatre.

Symphony in E flat major, Hummel op. 6, no. 3 (C 9)

1. Allegro con brio
2. Andante
3. Allegro assai

The allegro con brio is bursting with energy. Even those parts where a certain amount of repose might be expected are underpinned by busy accompaniments. As in both other movements in this symphony, the recapitulation of the first part is rather shorter than the original, with some seemingly important material (like the crescendo) omitted. The andante, here for strings alone and in C minor, is full of characteristic Bachian features, especially the “scotch snap”. Surprisingly the “second subject” in the relative major (beginning at bar 11) never returns in the second part of the movement. But then the opening material never has a proper recapitulation in the tonic key. The vitality and good humour of the first movement returns in the finale. The beginning of the section which I suppose could be called the second subject has a rhythmically leasing passage of four and a half bars, which on repetition becomes even more puzzling because nothing is in the same part of the bar as before. Continuing the trend for truncated recapitulations noted in the first two movements, the opening material never returns in its original form and key in the second half of the movement. Instead, transposed into C minor, it sounds like a mini-development section and provides excellent contrast to the cheerful mood of the rest of the movement.

Symphony in B flat major, Hummel op. 6, no. 4 (C 10)

1. Allegro di molto
2. Andante
3. Presto

The first movement has the feeling of an opera overture. The material Bach uses is not very distinguished, but yet again by sheer technical skill (not least the careful balancing of phrase and answer) and energy he produces a movement which convinces. The andante (in E flat major and for two flutes and strings) is a seemingly simple binary movement made more sophisticated not just by the plaintive tones of the flutes but also by the use of a seven-bar main theme and a rather nice coda at the end. The finale, in total contrast, is a simple, almost brusque, rondo with two short episodes, recalling Bach’s early opera overtures.

Symphony in E flat major, Hummel op. 6, no. 5 (C 11)

1. Allegro con brio
2. Andante
3 Allegro assai

If the large number of manuscripts of this work to be found in libraries throughout Europe is any guide, this must have been one of Bach’s most popular symphonies, and rightly so. The opening of the Allegro con brio perhaps typifies this appeal: it is charming yet sufficiently original to interest the connoisseur. The movement begins with a four-bar theme in unison, not peremptory in tone but inviting. A crescendo from piano takes us to a forte, which is immediately interrupted by four-bar duet (marked piano) for the violins. The forte then resumes until the end of the first subject. You can hear how much more conventional the whole sequence would sound without the interruption from the two violins when it reappears in the recapitulation. Yet just as the entire movement is drawing to a close, there is the duet again, out of its original context, surprising and delighting. There are plenty more surprises in the movement to: the charming “second subject” vanishes after its first appearance and the “development” begins with the note you are least expecting. The andante in C minor is built almost entirely on the repetition of two short motives; one for the opening minor-key section and the other for the major-key section which follows. In the second half of the movement when the music moves from major to minor these motives are exchanged. The serious mood of this movement is underpinned by divided violas, oboes and a very sparing use of horns. The finale could not be in greater contrast: a jolly movement in 3/8 time with only the slightest hint of formal or harmonic sophistication.

Symphony in G minor, Hummel op. 6, no. 6 (C 12)

1. Allegro
2. Andante più tosto adagio
3. Allegro motto

In the eighteenth century minor key symphonies were extremely rare. Jan LaRue in his monumental, A Catalogue of 18th-Century Symphonies, lists the opening themes of 16 558 symphonic works. Of these, 15 647, over 94 %, are in major keys. The remaining 911 are mostly in D minor (the most common minor key), C minor or G minor. LaRue’s otherwise invaluable book however does not show how many of these 911 works have all their movements in minor keys. I would guess that extremely few of them do. Neither of Mozart’s qualifies nor do any of Joseph Haydn’s nine, not even the extremely severe F minor symphony No. 49. La Passione, the trio of which is in F major. So Johann Christian Bach’s only minor-key symphony, admittedly in three rather than four movements, is probably one of an extremely rare species.

As usual, Bach has one or two surprises for his more attentive listeners. In the first movement, for example, the very first bar, which in context sounds an absolutely integral part of the movements is never heard again. In contrast, the rhythmic motive in bar 2 and ideas in bars 4-7 are deployed almost to excess. But the character of the andante, for strings alone and the third slow movement in C minor in this set of symphonies, undoubtedly derives from its first two bars. If evidence is still needed that Johann Christian Bach could compose music which is not superficial this movement is surely it! The strong finale is worthy of the two earlier movements, with much interplay between the higher and the lower instruments and a highly original ending.

Symphony in G major, Huberty op. 6, no. 1

1. Allegro con brio
2. Andantino
3. Tempo di Minuetto
4. Allegro assai

Music copyists were by no means the only unscrupulous people in the eighteenth-century music business, publishers regularly issued works without the composer’s permission, often brought out garbled editions and frequently attributed work of lesser men to greater. Supplement IV (1769) of the Breitkopf thematic catalogue lists six symphonies by Johann Christian Bach published in Paris as op. 6. The edition, by Huberty, contains the overture to Il tutore e la pupillo, an extraordinary (and undoubtedly spurious) symphony in five movements and four of the works later published by Hummel as op. 6. The first symphonies in the Huberty and Hummel collections are superficially the same, but a closer inspection reveals important differences. The three movements, which in Hummel have no repeated sections, are in Huberty all divided into two sections with repeat marks, thus doubling the length of the work. In the first and second movements there are also extra bars, the largest number before the recapitulation in the first movement. However the most obvious difference in the Huberty edition is the added minuet and trio. No original symphony by Johann Christian Bach has four movements and this minuet is clearly an interpolation by an unknown composer. We know from other sources that Bach’s own published versions of his works were sometimes revisions of lengthier originals. How Huberty got hold of these versions of the three movements we shall probably never know, but they are almost certainly genuine and obviously earlier than their Hummel equivalents. These variants may not be of earth shattering importance, but a close comparison with the Hummel version will, I am sure, convince you that, when it came to revising his works, Bach’s critical faculties were extremely well developed.

Six Symphonies, Markordt op. 8

We know very little about the Amsterdam music publisher, S. Markordt, except that he began the business in about 1770 and his widow sold it to his more prominent and enterprising local rival, J. J. Hummel, in 1808. However, in his earliest years (and certainly by 1773) Markordt issued six symphonies by Johann Christian Bach, which he called Op 8, the number Bach himself allocated to a set of quartets. Three of the symphonies had already been published in 1770 by Hummel and remainder had been advertised in either the 1766 or the 1767 supplement to Breitkopf’s thematic catalogue. Markordt’s versions of the three symphonies previously published by Hummel are not exactly the same, but are insufficiently different to justify their separate recording here.

Symphony in G major, Markordt op. 8, no. 2 (C 13)

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Presto assai

A set of orchestral parts of this symphony in the monastery library at Kremsmünster in Austria is dated 1764, but the work was probably quite a number of years old when it was copied. The allegro is the simplest of movements. The first 29 bars, which comprise the first subject area, are repeated note for note in the recapitulation. The second subject area too is repeated almost as literally, except for the customary difference of key. There is no development as such, just a few bars of dialogue between the oboes and the full orchestra and a repeated figure, getting ever higher, which leads to the recapitulation. The character of the andante is determined by the use of two viola parts, which play a moto perpetuo over (mostly) a pizzicato bass line. Above this the violins exercise their ingenuity in exploiting a simple rhythmic figure. Just when this threatens to be outstaying its welcome, Bach introduces new material, only to return to his original figure very soon afterwards. The presto assai is one of those tiny movements usually found as the finale in the opera overtures of the time. This one is not quite as jolly as most since about a quarter is given over to an episode in the minor key.

Symphony in D major, Markordt op. 8, no. 3 (C 14)

1. Allegro assai
2. Andante
3. Presto

I would not be surprised if this little symphony was eventually found to have been the overture to an opera, perhaps even a comic opera, since it has all the characteristics of one. The allegro assai begins with a loud, attention-grabbing arpeggio, followed by an immediate drop in dynamics to piano, which turns out to be the beginning of a long crescendo, during which the violins rise through two octaves. There is much repetition of phrases. In fact the entire second subject area, such as it is, is built in that fashion. There is no development, just a brief episode (touching on the minor at the end) before we crash into the recapitulation. This is much shorter than the exposition, but contains an entirely new section (and a nasty surprise for the second violins – a virtuoso passage in semiquavers). The andante is a limpid movement for strings, much in the style of the overture to Gli uccellotori. The Presto has so strong a feeling of the theatre about it that you almost feel a sense of deprivation when it is not followed by a chord on the harpsichord and a singer beginning the first scene of act one!

Symphony in F major, Markordt op. 8, no. 4 (C 15)

1. Allegro molto
2. Andante
3. Tempo di Menuetto

This by for the most sophisticated of the three Markordt symphonies recorded here. The first movement begins conventionally enough with three repeated chords, but there are many unexpected delights to follow. The most striking is the fusion of the development and the recapitulation. Just before the half-way mark the material of the opening returns in the dominant key. This is followed by a vigorous new section passing through D minor (and by sequential repetition) to C major. A crescendo prepares the ear for the expected return of the opening material of the movement, marking the beginning of the conventional recapitulation. What Bach actually gives us – quite a shock – is the second subject area instead. However, as if to restore the balance of the movement, and perhaps made amends for shocking us, he brings back much of the first subject material (but without the three chords) to round off the movement. The andante is another patterned movement, in principle much the some as the slow movement of the first symphony on this CD. The Minuet and Trio finale is one of the most attractive movements in all of Bach’s orchestral music, tuneful and beautifully composed. Note in particular the Trio in the minor key (for oboes, violins and bass only) and the reprise of the minuet, not the conventional literal repeat, but a recomposed version to provide a stronger conclusion to the work.

Symphony in C major, Venier no. 46 (C 16a)

1. Allegro assai
2. Andantino
3. Allegro assai

The music publisher Jean Baptiste Venier, who was active from about 1755 until 1784, brought much foreign instrumental to the Parisian public. He seems to have had very good contacts around Europe, since he was the first to publish a symphony by Joseph Haydn (Hob, I:2) and also managed to issue the overture to Johann Christian Bach’s opera Artaserse before the first performance. In all he published ten works by Bach, three opera overtures, a set of symphonies (also called Op. 8) of which no copy has yet come to light and the work recorded here for the first time. Venier published it in the late 1770s as Simphonie Périodique No. 46, but the style clearly dates it somewhat earlier, possibly as early as the early 1760s. The first movement is characterised by its unison opening and its profligate use of musical ideas. There is no second subject area worth talking about. What initially appears to be the second subject turns out in fact to be the beginning of a passage leading to the recapitulation. The andante is a gently flowing movement for strings alone, with some delightful harmonic twists and some “Mozartian” scoring of the violins in octaves. The finale is coloured much of the time by the second violin line in triplets, contrasting with the insistently duple character of the other parts. There is a central episode in the minor of an entirely contrasting nature, which is followed by a literal repeat of the opening section.

Symphony in C major, Venier no. 46 (alternative)

1. Allegro
2. Andante con espressione
3. Allegro

The first movement is the non-identical twin of Venier’s Simphonie Périodique No. 46, but the second and third movements are different. A similar relationship exists between the overtures to the Cantata a tre voci (Birthday Cantata) and Il tutore e la pupilla.

Here there is no documentary evidence to prove which version came first, but the one we have here seems to be the less mature work. Certainly the first movement is technically less accomplished. The andante is fairly typical of Bach’s dreamy slow movements for strings alone. The finale once again is of the opera buffa type.

Symphony in F major (in manuscript)

1. Allegro assai
2. Andante
3. Presto

In Johann Christian Bach’s time much the most important centres of music publishing were London, Amsterdam and Paris. Music was, of course, printed in other major cities but less extensively. However, in many places, notably Italy, music still circulated in manuscript copies. Then as now, music by a famous composer found a more ready sale than that of lesser figures, so copyists regularly attributed works by minor composers to major. That is why there are more spurious symphonies attributed to Johann Christian Bach (not to mention Joseph Haydn) than authentic. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of scholars like Jan LaRue, H. C. Robbins London and Barry Brook it is now possible to identify the real composers of most of these works. Some of the remainder are of such poor quality as to make authentication impossible. Just a few might be genuine, including this delightful little symphony recorded here for the first time. All its manuscript sources are in Italy or Switzerland in libraries with lots of authentic works. The style suggests a date of around 1760.

The first movement begins conventionally enough with a few loud notes in unison followed by a quiet harmonised passage, but the tone of the movement becomes darker as it progresses. Instead of the second subject in the dominant major key for which the ear has been prepared, we have an agitated passage in the dominant minor.

This restless tone remains in the development, which is here a clearly defined section, and even persists in the recapitulation, where the second subject returns once again in the minor. The unison motive we heard at the very beginning of the movement returns towards the end to initiate a coda, placed there (as it were) to convince us that the movement really was in the major key after all. The andante, for flutes and strings, is perhaps the most characteristically Bachian movement of the three. The presto is yet another cheerful opera buffa overture finale, with only the slightest hint of more serious concerns.

Three Symphonies, Burchard Hummel op. 9/Longman & Broderip op. 21

On 8 March 1773 the Dutch newspaper, s’Gravenhaegse courant, carried an advertisement for three symphonies, op. 9 by Johann Christian Bach. The advertisement had been placed by the local music publisher Burchard Hummel (1731-97), younger brother of the much more famous Amsterdam publisher, Johann Julius (1728-98). At that time the brothers worked very closely together, but why these three symphonies were brought out by Burchard and not Johann Julius (who had already published a large number of Johann Christian’s works) and how they came into his possession can only be the object of speculation. Shortly afterwards the London firm of Longman and Lukey – the defendants in Bach’s famous lawsuit which established once and for all the principle of musical copyright in Britain – issued their own edition with the music printed from Hummel’s plates. The symphonies must have become popular in Britain and remained so for quite a long time because some time during the decade after Bach’s death in 1782 Longman and Broderip, the successors of Longman and Lukey, produced a third edition as op. 21, which they printed from expensive newly-engraved plates.

One of the factors contributing to the popularity of these symphonies – apart from their obvious charm – may have been their practical and economical scoring. Flutes, bassoons and even clarinets may have been available in the great metropolitan centres of Europe, but in the vast majority of musical establishments throughout the continent an orchestra of strings with a pair each of oboes and horns remained the norm from the I760s to the French Revolution. However, my researches over the post few years have revealed that these and other Johann Christian Bach symphonies and overtures hitherto accepted as the genuine article are in fact arrangements of more fully and exotically scored originals. To make the point more clearly, we have taken this opportunity to record the works in both forms.

Symphony in B flat major, op. 9/21, no. 1 (C 17b)

1. Allegro con spirito
2. Andante
3. Presto

The opening of the allegro con spirito and indeed much of the rest of the movement suggest that this may originally hove been on opera overture, possibly to La finta sposo of April 1763, the only opera directed by Bach during his single season as music director of the King’s Theatre in London yet to be identified. The structure of the movement nonetheless is a very clearly defined sonata form. The loud chords of the beginning return to announce the start of both a rudimentary development section and the arrival of the recapitulation. The “second subject” (in the oboes) is repeated in text-book fashion in the recapitulation. The slow movement is built on three statements of a sensuous sixteen-bar melody, the second half being more fully orchestrated than the first, with two episodes and a coda. The presto finale – in sonata form – is evidence in the case against the work having originally been an opera overture: it is longer and much better composed than the vast majority of them.

Symphony in E flat major, op. 9/21, no. 2 (C 18b)

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Tempo di Menuetto

Johann Christian Bach’s main Parisian music publisher, Jean-Georges Sieber, published a fourth edition of this work in about 1775 in a set of three symphonies also containing works by François-Joseph Gossec and Joseph Haydn. In this edition Bach’s symphony is given a fourth movement, an allegro con spirito in 6/8 time. We have not recorded it here because it is technically well below Johann Christian’s normal level of competence and therefore almost certainly spurious. The first of the three authentic movements begins with an orchestrated crescendo from the piano opening. The violins get ever higher and first horns and then oboes are added, but it is not until the tenth bar that Bach feels it necessary actually to add the instruction crescendo. Formally the movement is as free as the first symphony was conventional. The second subject, for example, does not return in the recapitulation. Perhaps Bach thought we had heard quite enough of it in the development. The andante however is formal simplicity itself: two statements of an eight-bar melody in the first violins over a pizzicato accompaniment, with an episode between and a coda afterwards. But that is to do Bach’s ravishing movement about as much justice as describing a stunningly beautiful woman as a female biped. The minuet finale (without Trio) is almost as simply constructed and nearly as sensuously attractive.

Symphony in B flat major, op. 9/21, no. 3

1. Allegro assai
2. Andante
3. Allegro di molto

This symphony is much shorter than the other two of op. 9/21 because it is actually an arrangement of the overture to Zanaida, Bach’s second opera for the King’s Theatre, London, which had been performed as long ago as May 1763. It had also been published the following year by the younger Walsh in both its original and a reduced orchestration. The allegro assai begins with a somewhat unusual “call to order” for an opera overture. The unison passage which immediately follows plays a major structural role in the whole movement, making its final appearance as the coda. The second subject features the two oboes in canon, the some as in the first movement of the first symphony. There is no development section as such, but a rather discursive first part to the recapitulation, beginning not quite half way through the movement. The andante begins with a simple eight-bar melody, played first by the strings and then repeated (mostly) by the wind. When it is repealed in the middle of the movement, it is only played once, with the wind taking the first half and the full orchestra the second. The remainder of the movement is characterised by similar orchestral exchanges, which (however effective they may be here) are only revealed in their full glory in the original orchestration.

The allegro di molto, like many opera overture finales of the time, is over in a minute but more ingeniously composed than most.

Symphony in E flat major, with clarinets (C 18a)

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Tempo di Menuetto

The modern edition by the pioneering Johann Christian Bach scholar Dr Fritz Stein in the famous Eulenburg series of miniature scores has made the work one of the most accessible to music lovers for over sixty years. It has also been recorded a number of times. However, as for as I know, no conductor, instrumentalist, musicologist, recording producer or writer of programme notes has ever commented of the uncharacteristic nature of the flute/oboe parts. Usually in Johann Christian Bach’s works they mostly play the some notes as the first or second violins. Here they are given a much less demanding role, quite uncharacteristic of Bach’s writing for them, but entirely consistent with his way of writing for clarinets. All become clear when I come upon an anonymous set of parts once in the Royal Music Collection and now in the British Library in London. There the parts were given to clarinets – and there also was on independent bassoon part. In other words, I had recovered the original version of the lost of the op. 9 symphonies. Although the parts are not in Johann Christian’s own handwriting, there can be no doubt of the version’s authenticity. The effect of clarinets and bassoons on the scoring is perhaps not as startlingly obvious here as it was in the previous work, but there is undoubted gain (in my view) in their restoration.

Symphony in B flat major, Sieber 1773 Collection, no. 1 (C 17a)

1. Allegro con spirito
2. Andante
3. Presto

This symphony was placed first in Sieber’s Bach-Toeschi-Stamitz collection, the position normally given by composers and publishers in orchestral collections to the work they considered the best. Here we have the first opportunity to hear what we have been missing for all these years. There can be no doubt that presence of clarinets in place of the oboes and a very active bassoon replacing the lower strings in this original version alters the character of the entire work – and for the better. In the first movement the many passages for unaccompanied clarinets and bassoon make much more musical sense than before. The second half of the main melody of the Andante, for example, on every one of its three appearances, with the first clarinet an octave below the first violin and the bassoon an octave below that, sounds remarkably rich compared with the arrangement for oboes.

Symphony in E flat major (C 19), Sieber 1773 Collection, no. 2

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Tempo di Gavotta: Allegro

On 10 May 1773 Sieber advertised the publication of a collection of six symphonies, containing two works each by Bach, Joseph Toeschi and Carl Stamitz. The title page of the publication itself informs us that the symphonies has been chosen by the new directors of the famous public concerts, Le Concert Spirituel, to inaugurate their regime and that they had met with the greatest success and applause of the public. The new directors, Pierre Gaviniès, Pierre Le Duc and François-Joseph Gossec, took over in March 1773 and, although the surviving programme details of the period do not list any symphonies by Bach, we can be reasonably certain that Sieber’s title page tells the truth. The symphonies must certainly have been popular, because Sieber re-issued then at least eight times. The second symphony was also published by J. J. Hummel in Amsterdam in September 1774 and Robert Bremner in London in May 1775. Both of these editions replace Bach’s original clarinets with oboes and re-allocate the bassoon’s solo passages to the violas or the ’cellos. Bach must have approved, or at least acquiesced in, the publication of this arrangement, since he appears not to have complained about it in public as he did in the case of on earlier Bremner publication of one of his works. It is unlikely, however, that he made the arrangement himself, not least because it takes the oboes higher than they were actually able to play at the time!

The allegro is characterised by much motivic repetition and development. A few bars after the opening, the first clarinet begins on orchestrated crescendo based on a two-bar figure. A similar passage forms the first part on the second subject group. The development proper starts with a fugato! The andante is the perfect antidote to all the ingenuity of the first movement, a cantilena, with almost all the melodic interest concentrated in the first violin part. The Gavotte has more than a passing family resemblance to the first movement and forms a most satisfactory finale.

Six Symphonies, Forster op. 18

When Johann Christian Bach was dying in the autumn of 1781, the London instrument maker, music seller and music publisher, William Forster, began to issue six of his orchestral works to which he, Forster, gave the opus number 18. Bach had already used the some number for his own edition of six sonatas (four for keyboard and violin, one for keyboard duet and one for two keyboards), which he had brought out earlier in the some year or perhaps in 1780. The six symphonies Forster published as op. 18 are, like Bach’s own op. 18, for a mixture of resources. nos. 1, 3 and 5 are for a double orchestra and the remainder are for the normal single orchestra. no. 2 is actually the overture to Bach’s opera Lucio Silla (Mannheim, 1775). No. 4 has as its slow movement an arrangement of the Andante of the overture to another operatic commission for Mannheim, Temistocle (1772). And no. 6 is arranged, certainly not by Bach, from the overture and two of the ballet movements in his French opera, Amadis de Gaule (Paris, 1779).

The double orchestra works are among the finest symphonies written by any composer before the 1780s and remained in the repertory of London concerts well into the nineteenth century. Quite when Bach started writing double orchestra symphonies is not clear. The earliest reference I have been able to find is to the performance of a “favourite” symphony for double orchestra at the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket on 21 February 1772. That was obviously not its first performance. Similarly, we do not know how many of the works Bach wrote. But there is good evidence that there were more than the three that we have today. Whether Bach originated the double-orchestra symphony or whether he imported the idea from Mannheim, where the size and quality of the orchestra allowed it to be divided, is unclear. The Elector’s Director of Instrumental Music, Christian Cannabich (1731-1798), and his Spiritual Adviser and second Kapellmeister from 1775, Georg Joseph Vogler (1749-1814) both wrote double-orchestra symphonies.

The double orchestra in all three of the works consists of two complete string sections, seated one on each side of the conductor. The oboes and horns play with the first orchestra and the flutes with the second. The bassoon has divided loyalties. Bach’s enjoyment at exploiting the many possibilities of the interplay between the two orchestras is obvious.

Symphony for double orchestra in E flat major, Forster op. 18, no. 1 (C 26)

1. Spiritoso
2. Andante
3. Allegro

The first movement begins with a bold motive for both orchestras together in unison. This will be tossed around between the two orchestras throughout the movement, even acting as an accompaniment to more lyrical material. The first orchestra (stereo left) continues on its own in semiquavers. The second orchestra returns in the ninth bar and plays exactly what the first orchestra played during the first eight bars. Against this the first orchestra provides a vigorous accompaniment. The dynamic then drops to piano as a written-out, “Mannheim”, crescendo begins. The actual word crescendo is not used in Forster’s printed parts but as more and more instruments are added and the pitch rises, that is clearly what Bach intended, A strenuous tutti follows, with the bass instruments of both orchestras thundering out the crescendo motive. We then hear the opening unison motive again from the combined orchestras, but this lime in the dominant key. The first orchestra then plays a short lyrical section alone, which it then repeats to the accompaniment of the second orchestra playing the unison motive. The roles are then reversed. Another tutti follows, with the two orchestras at times playing the some material at the distance of half a bar. A further lyrical section then begins, with first orchestra leading and the second following. The calm is shattered by the entry of the crescendo motive played by the combined orchestras. The development has begun but will continue for a mere 26 bars. The recapitulation returns us to familiar territory. But Bach has one final imaginative stroke: he ends the movement pianissimo – an extremely unusual procedure in a work of the period.

The lovely Andante finds the two orchestras doing different things for most of the time. In general, the violins of the first orchestra busy themselves with triplet semiquavers while the second orchestra plays a more serene role. The finale is lively and cheerful, with the character but no the form of a “hunting” rondo. Note the many rapid-fire exchanges between the two orchestras, beginning with the first entry of the second orchestra.

Symphony in B flat major, Forster op. 18, no. 2 (G 9)

1. Allegro assai
2. Andante
3. Presto

As I have already observed, this symphony is note for note the overture to Lucia Silla (Mannheim, 1775) and, following its first modern publication in the edition by Fritz Stein and its first Recording by Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the 1920s, the work which led the modern revival of interest in Bach’s music. It is not only a fine concert piece, but works wonderfully well in the theatre. The first movement, with its Italianate “call to order” (the repeated chords) at the beginning, is a wonderful prelude to an evening’s dramatic entertainment. The oboe solo in the andante is one of Bach’s happiest inspirations. The finale whips up the sense of expectation at the music drama shortly to be unfolded. At, the risk of being accused of special pleading, I would say that this work is among very best pieces of music composed as a prelude to an eighteenth-century opera by any composer.

Symphony for double orchestra in D major, Forster op. 18, no. 3 (G 15b)

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Allegro

This work too originally served as an overture to a work for the Mannheim court, the azione drammatica, Endimione. Whether it was the original overture to Endimione, first given in London on 6 April 1772, we cannot be sure, since it is missing from Bach’s autograph score. The only significant difference between the only surviving manuscript full eighteenth-century score in the Landesbibliothek in Darmstadt and the parts published by Forster is that the manuscript has parts from trumpets and timpani and Forster’s parts either leave them out or transfer them to the horns. The substance of the work being the same in both cases.

Like op. 18, no.1, this work begins with a unison motive. Here it is even shorter: just four notes in the some rhythm as the start of the Lucia Silla overture. Thereafter, the two orchestras compete, if anything, even more intensely than in op. 18, no. 1. The Andante is a movement to treasure. The brisk interchanges between the orchestras are set aside and for much of the time they play together. Only in the middle section of the ABA structure, does Bach exploit the full potential of the interaction between the two orchestras, producing some of the most complex orchestral textures (and the most ravishing sounds) in the whole of eighteenth-century music. The finale is also an ABA structure, with a thrilling and highly theatrical coda added.

Symphony in D major, Forster op. 18, no. 4 (C 27)

1. Allegro con spirito
2. Andante
3. Presto

As I have noted above, the Andante is an arrangement of the slow movement of the overture to Bach’s opera Temistocle (Mannheim, 1772). There it is exotically scored for strings, flutes, horns and three clarinetti d’amore. Since ordinary clarinets remained a rarity in orchestras until the last years of the eighteenth century and clarinetti d’amore were as rare as hens’ teeth, the only way the movement was going to be published was in an arrangement without any clarinets at all. The outer movements seem to have had no antecedents, which is why I have accepted the work as authentic in my Thematic Catalogue of Bach’s works.

The first movement has all the bustle of an opera overture, including yet again the loud repeated notes at the beginning (there traditionally to draw the wealthy and fashionable audience’s attention to the fact that the show was beginning – conductors were not greeted with applause when they entered the pit in those days). In the relaxed andante, the flutes and violas take over the tasks originally allotted to the clarinetti d’amore. The exhilarating finale is a simple rondo, with the second statement of the main section at only half its original length. The episodes between the recurring material are much longer and very closely argued. The second episode is in the minor key.

Symphony for double orchestra in E major, Forster op. 18, no. 5 (C 28)

1. [Allegro]
2. Andante
3. Tempo di Minuetto

The first movement opens gently, with both orchestras appearing independently. They then join forces in another written-out “Mannheim” crescendo and then the contest between them begins. If at times it is gentler competition than in the two other double-orchestra symphonies, elsewhere is just as fierce. The yet again the exquisite andante is the highlight of the work. Bach points up the contrast between the two orchestras by having the second playing with mutes almost to the very end and by having the first play pizzicato when the second has important thematic material. The stately Minuet finale has a highly memorable tune in the first and last (major key) sections. The central section in the tonic minor offers just the right contrast.

Symphony in D major, Forster op. 18, no. 6 (XC 1)

1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Allegretto
4. Allegro

I have excluded this piece from the list of authentic works in my Johann Christian Bach Thematic catalogue because it is clearly the work of an arranger, possibly William Forster himself. Johann Christian Bach, like his father, was well able to recycle his music if it suited him. However, both father and son always reused their music competently. Here are the fingerprints of the bungler. Why, for example, would Johann Christian Bach wish to simplify the original opening of the first movement or have eleven bars played twice (bars 62-72 played again as bars 73-83) when such repetition is absent from the original Arnadis overture. More importantly, it is inconceivable that Bach himself would have added the nine extra bars at the end of the andante, which prepare the ear for a return to D major, whereas the next movement begins in A major! However, these considerations aside, there is still much to enjoy here: the vigour of the opening allegro, the relaxed andante (with its flute and oboe duet), the allegretto (in fact Gavottes 1 & 2 from the end of Act One of Amadis), with its plaintive oboe solo in the middle section in A minor, and to conclude the jolly final allegro (originally a Gigue in E major from the divertissement at the end of Act Two).

Ernest Warburton

(C... *) = Thematic Catalogue of JCB’s works by Ernest Warburton
New York: Garland Publishing Inc, 1999