J.C. Bach - Sextet in C major

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782) Sextet in C major for oboe, 2 horns, violin, cello, & keyboard (c. 1775) 00:00 - Allegro 07:22 - Larghetto 12:31 - Rondo: Allegro Oboe - David Reichenberg Horns - Anthony Halstead & David Cox Violin - Simon Standage Violoncello - Anthony Pleeth Fortepiano - Trevor Pinnock (1988) "The authorship of the Sextet in C major has sometimes been erroneously attributed to Bach's older brother Johann Christoph Friedrich, the 'Bückeberg Bach', on the evidence of a cello part in the latter's hand, which survived in a Berlin library until the Second World War. This theory has been thoroughly discredited and there can be no doubt of the work's true authorship. We cannot precisely date its composition (it was posthumously published by Johann André of Offenbach as op. 3 c.1783). The first movement is a reworking of a sonata for harp, violin and cello, which Bach wrote for the Welsh harpist Edward Jones, who came to London from Wales around 1774 or 1775. It must be assumed that the Sextet dates from after this time. Its scoring has no obvious parallels in 18th-century chamber-music: the basic quartet of oboe, violin, cello and keyboard provides the main musical material, while two horns enrich the texture in the outer movements. The keyboard has a prominent concertante role, but, in contrast to the Quintet op. 22, it more frequently blends with, or accompanies, the other instruments and is only occasionally used as a contrast to the massed group. The central Larghetto resembles one of Bach's operatic arias: the oboe has a fine-spun catilena, the violin and cello share in the accompanimental patterns, and the texture is bound together by the broken chords of the keyboard part. After a half close in G, a flourish on the oboe leads into the Rondo finale. Here, the C section of the ABACA structure is in F major. The keyboard and horns fall silent, as the oboe, violin and cello take over in a vivacious and virtuosic dance." - Stephen Roe Painting: Vine Leaves, Caroline Friederike Friedrich