Symphonies; Concerto for piano (Cembalo)

"Unlike his younger brothers Emanuel and Christian, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-84), eldest son of the great Johann Sebastian, never quite achieved the success his talents must have seemed to promise him. Perhaps because it reflects his eccentric character, his music — quirky, abrupt, full of jagged gestures and sudden harmonic twists — inhabits a kind of historical no man's land. It refuses to be placed. The F major Sinfonia's opening movement is continually subverted, in the end dwindling away to nothing, whereas its finale is a serene near-Handelian minuet. But though disconcerting, he demands to be heard, and the Berlin period-instrument band plays him with admirable energy and expressiveness."
David Cairns
The Sunday Times

"The Berlin period orchestra gives typically earthy, upfront readings of this intriguing music, bringing a crackling energy to the fast movements and relishing every disconcerting twist and turn in Bach's arguments."
Richard Wigmore
The Daily Telegraph

This recording presents a selection of works that will at last allow justice to be done to Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Johann Sebastian's favourite son.
The legacy of his enigmatic life is a body of works whose highly personal style still largely awaits rediscovery.