Of all J.S. Bach’s famous children, Wilhelm Friedrich, the eldest son and half-brother of C.P.E Bach, has the most colourful reputation, as the black sheep of the Bach family. But is this reputation deserved? As scholars like David Schulenberg have pointed out, Friedrich has suffered historically thanks to the unfortunate combination of scant biographical detail, and uncharitable actors filling in the blanks. Albert Emil Brachvogel’s novel on Wilhelm Friedrich, turned into a 1941 film, framed Friedrich as the talented son trying to move out of his father’s shadow, and focused heavily on his capacity for immodesty, belligerence and drunkenness. Matters were not helped by a rakish, widely circulated portrait by Wilhelm Weitsch that is almost certainly not of Wilhelm, but instead of a relative. 

The style is an interesting compound. The opening movement retains a melancholic character, despite a stand-out harpsichord part, which emerges as a truly solo voice, rather than a member of concertino. Still, inbetween the sections of dazzling solo passagework, there’s still room for long stretches of rigorous counterpoint. The middle movement is a Cantabile, in stately triple time, ripe for ornamentation in the increasingly ornate solo part. The finale, Allegro, ma non molto, returns to the melancholy air of the opening, with repeated “sighing” gestures and downward figures passed around the ensemble. It’s disrupted, once again, by more harpsichord fireworks, before a resolute conclusion. 

Hugh Morris 2024