Search - Johann Christian Bach, Camerata Koln :: Bach: Flute Quartets op. 19

Perhaps J.C. Bach's greatest chamber music

10/01/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These four quartets were written for a connoisseur and, dating from probably 1780, are the pinnacle of his chamber music. They deserve to be known as well as his Symphony in g minor, Op. 6 #6, and his effervescent piano concerto Op. 7 #5. This is fully mature classical-period chamber music for the flute, and all four works, in each of their three movements, are quite powerful in their own ways. Especially, listen to the first movement of Op. 19 #4: it has a sweep and grandeur one associates with Schubert. The ensemble plays with discreet fortepiano continuo as J.C. Bach performed these works with some of the most outstanding instrumentalists in London at the time for his and their own private amusement (never mind the less musically sensitive for whom he usually "wrote down"). These period-instrument performances are utterly satisfying and capture perfectly the sense of the music."