J.C.F. Bach, "the Bach of Bückeburg". Piano concerto in E major

As all we know, Johann Sebastian Bach was married twice. First with Maria Barbara, in 1707, and after her death, with Anna Magdalena, in 1721. Less said, or forgotten, is that Johann Sebastian was not only the father of harmony but also the father of no less than twenty children. Seven were born to Maria Barbara, and thirteen to Anna Magdalena. Of the twenty, only ten reached adulthood. Of these, four became great musicians. Each mother contributed an equal number of composers, two: Maria Barbara, with Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philipp Emanuel; Anna Magdalena with Johann Christoph Friedrich and Johann Christian.

"The Bach of Bückeburg"

Of these four great composers, Johann Christoph Friedrich turns out today to be the least mentioned of Bach's musical sons. However, his long sojourn at the court of the small town of Bückeburg earned him a similar appellation to that of his two more famous brothers (Johann Christian, "the Bach of London", and Carl Philipp Emanuel, "the Bach of Hamburg"). Born in Leipzig when his father served as Kantor of the Thomaskirche in that city, at the age of eighteen he entered the service of a count established in Bückeburg. And there he remained all his life, to be remembered today as "the Bach of Bückeburg".

JCF Bach (1732 - 1795)

The end of the line

In 1755, Johann Christoph Friedrich married. He fathered a musician and composer son, Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst Bach, who married twice, like his grandfather, but had only one son, who died in infancy. Thus, this early death ended forever the Bach lineage, the most important and extensive family of German musicians of the 17th and 18th centuries.

A fruitful author  

Unlike the paths chosen by his three musical brothers, Johann Christoph Friedrich was the one who remained closest to his father's style. He is the most classical, the most restrained, and perhaps the most conservative of the musical sons of the "old Bach". He wrote twenty symphonies, a good number of oratorios, liturgical pieces, motets, concertos, and sonatas for the keyboard, although much of it disappeared with the bombing of Berlin during the Second World War.

Of his keyboard concertos, the Concerto for piano and strings in E major stands out in the preference of performers and audiences alike.

These are his movements:

00:00  Allegro

08:45  Adagio

14:01  Allegro moderato

The performance is by the French-Cypriot pianist and composer Cyprien Katsaris, accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra of the Echternach Festival, conducted by the South Korean conductor Yoon K. Lee.