Recent years have seen discoveries emerge – new music and new scholarship – which bring the picture of this enigmatic, misunderstood eldest son of J.S. Bach into sharper focus than ever before, proving definitively his compositional grace and intellect.

This set from Brilliant Classics is the first ever to present a comprehensive selection of all facets of Wilhelm Friedemann’s musical output: orchestral, chamber, keyboard and vocal. To the music long known to be his, from musicologist Martin Falck’s catalogue of 1913 and the Bach-Repertorium edited by Peter Wollny, have been added formerly unknown or misattributed works that affirm his remarkable genius, from the collection of Sarah Itzig Levy (great-aunt of Felix Mendelssohn) and the recently found Vilnius manuscript of keyboard music.

His Sinfonias are transitional in form from Baroque to Classical, much like his compositional style as a whole, which looks back to the rigorous counterpoint of his father while embracing the emotional expression of the empfindsamer style. Sinfonias were evolving from instrumental overtures attached to larger vocal forms into stand-alone works, forerunners of the modern symphony, containing their own discrete movements. The Suite in G minor, formerly attributed to his father, is one such piece. His Harpsichord Concertos combine binary sonata form with the traditional ritornello. The chamber music in this set features the flute and includes the erstwhile misattributed Sonata in F.

The sizeable collection of Keyboard Works performed here by eminent harpsichordist Claudio Astronio represents the largest part of Wilhelm Friedemann’s surviving oeuvre and also includes many new discoveries, while the Organ Music, from a composer considered to be the greatest organist of his day, leaves one wishing for more, either because the manuscripts simply did not survive or because Wilhelm Friedemann was such a skilled improviser that he wrote down sadly little of the organ wizardry with which he awed his contemporaries. The Cantatas are multi-movement works he composed for major feast days while director at Halle’s Liebfrauenkirche.

The most substantial anthology available of works by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. Recordings date from 1994 to 2017.

Wilhelm Friedemann was arguably the most gifted and original of Bach’s sons, the favourite of his father. His works are still not fully appreciated today and this Edition offers a great opportunity to get to know his genius.

Contains the complete keyboard works, the complete keyboard concertos, the complete organ works, chamber music, orchestral music and a fine selection of his beautiful cantatas.

Played on period instruments by Baroque specialists like Claudio Astronio and Das Kleine Konzert/Hermann Max.

Artists

Claudio Astronio (harpsichord/conductor), Marco Facchin (harpsichord), Wilbert Hazelzet, Marion Moonen (flutes), Jaap ter Linden (cello), Jacques Ogg (harpsichord/piano), Claudio Astronio (harpsichord), Filippo Turri (organ), Barbara Schlick (soprano), Claudia Schubert (alto), Wilfried Jochens (tenor), Stephen Schreckenberger (bass)

Kammerorchester ‘Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’, Harmonices Mundi, Rheinische Kantorei, Das Kleine Konzert, Hartmut Haenchen, Hermann Max