Renowned Baroque conductor Reinhard Goebel takes on the Bach family, including the more obscure Johann Ernst and Johann Ludwig, for an instrumental disc which, out of eight compositions, includes four world premieres. This panorama, with three works by Carl Philipp Emanuel (CPE), one by Wilhelm Friedemann (WF), one by Johann Christoph and a sinfonia (an isolated violin concerto movement) by the patriarch, makes it clear that it is indeed Haydn (1732-1809), born twenty years after CPE and WF, who decisively shaped the symphonic genre. Here we have works for strings from which stand out the Symphony in C major and the Symphony in E minor of CPE. WF’s Sinfonia is fairly nondescript, unlike the sympathetic, albeit antiquated Symphony with two bassoons by Johann Ernst, and especially to Concerto for 2 violins of Johann Ludwig (1677-1731), the cousin of Johann Sebastian, who often surprises so favorably. No revelation here, but good background music.
To see in video