Bach & Söhne

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin shares a long and distinguished history with the Innsbrucker Festwochen. Now, in its anniversary year, the ensemble invites audiences to a Bach family reunion, presenting highlights of concert music for harpsichord and orchestra in its first collaborative programme with the internationally acclaimed harpsichord virtuoso Francesco Corti.

Johann Sebastian Bach himself once dazzled listeners as a keyboard virtuoso in his epoch-making solo concertos. His sons, too, became leading performers and composers of their time. Wilhelm Friedemann, the eldest, was—like his father—a brilliant organist and improviser, whose uncompromising and idiosyncratic works, such as the Harpsichord Concerto in F minor, speak eloquently for themselves. Carl Philipp Emanuel, the second son, was an equally independent spirit: in his harpsichord concertos he combined introspection with expressive daring, shaping a musical language that bridged the Baroque and Classical eras. The youngest, Johann Christian Bach, would in turn carry this spirit forward in the orchestral music that made him a key figure of the emerging Classical style.