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Johann Christian BACH (1735-1782)
Symphonies concertantes, Vol. 6: B flat, C48a (oboe, violin, cello and fortepiano) (c1780) [25:57]. C, C43b (flute, oboe, violin, cello) (c1774/5) [19:24]. Fortepiano Concerto in G, C60 Bc (?) [20:31]. Cadenza in Cd (oboe, violin, viola and cello, attributed to Symphonie concertante in G, C45).
bNeil McLaren (flute); abdAnthony Robson (oboe); abdPavlo Beznosiuk, Graham Cracknell, Rodolfo Richter (violins); dJudith Tarling (viola); abdSebastian Comberti (cello)
The Hanover Band/Anthony Halstead (afortepiano).
rec. Rosslyn Hill Chapel Hampstead, on 3-5 September 2001. DDD
CPO 999 845-2 [69:32]

CPO continues to do sterling service to the ever-delightful music of J. C. Bach. Well-recorded with superb clarity, this volume begins with the dignified B flat, C48. This is mature J.C. serene in its compositional confidence. The fortepiano sounds absolutely fabulous, perfectly balanced in the sound-picture. Similar congratulations go to the slow movement, with its ultra-cantabile oboe (Anthony Robson). Bach seems to have had an inexhaustible supply of sublime melody, and here he is at his most Mozartian. The finale bubbles along infectiously.
 
The C major Sinfonia concertante of around five years earlier has a first movement that is more zippy in nature than its later brothers. Agile and life-enhancing solo cello playing helps things along, all of which is in contrast to the stately, sarabande-ish Larghetto - a Sarabande in ethos if not in time-signature! A chirpy Allegretto rounds it all off.
 
Finally - in terms of full works - the G major Fortepiano Concerto, an alternative version of Op. 7/6 – the MS of this work was sold in Sotheby's in 1992 and the moving force behind this multi-volume project, Dr Ernest Warburton, obtained permission to include it here. The recording, curiously, seems closer than previous items on this disc, but once the ear has adjusted the listener can delight in the superb communication between soloist and tutti. A cloud scuds across the clear horizon around the 5'14 mark. Halstead manages to float phrases magically in the slow movement.
 
The imaginatively-performed cadenza, effectively an appendix, is performed with real verve and charisma.
 
Colin Clarke
 
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