Johann Sebastian Bach is undoubtedly one of the musical geniuses of all time. His expert composing skills and the work he left behind made him an example and a source of inspiration for composers to come. He also passed his knowledge and love for music to his sons: Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian. Over time, they became important composers with a personalised style.

The concert with Kristian Bezuidenhout as a soloist and leader of Wrocław Baroque Orchestra will be opened by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Symphony in G major. Carl Philipp Emanuel was nicknamed the “Berlin Bach” and “Hamburg Bach”. He was a virtuoso of keyboard instruments, so in his legacy focused on them in a peculiar way, one can see the traits of the empfindsamer stil developed in Germany in the18th century – a sentimental style, known as the style of increased emotionality. We will also hear piano concertos by the same composer – Piano Concerto in D minor and Piano Concerto in C major. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was also active as a theorist. His 1753 treatise on the true art of playing the keyboard – the Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen – is of excellent value, both substantive and practical.

Johann Christian – the “London Bach” – went down in history as one of the most versatile composers of his time, and his work had a strong influence on the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. During the concert, the musicians will present the lively and impressive Sinfonia in G minor op. 6 no. 6, bearing the features of the sturm und drang (storm and pressure) style, represented in the history of music by, among others C.Ph.E. Bach and Joseph Haydn.

Anton Walter (1752–1826) was considered to be the most famous fortepiano maker of his time, praised for their quality by Mozart, who bought a Walter in 1782, and by Beethoven, who nearly succeeded in buying one in 1802. Haydn owned the sister piano to Mozart’s. According to Mozart’s son Carl: “Most remarkable is the wing-shaped pianoforte for which my father had a special preference to such a degree that he not only wanted to have it in his study all the time, but exclusively used this and no other instrument in all his concerts...”