Bach's Family: Choral Motets

Featuring

Frieder Bernius
Sonntraud Engels-Benz
Kammerchor Stuttgart
Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach
Johann Christoph Altnickol

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Composer Biography

Johann Christoph Altnickol, a pupil of J.S. Bach, was a versatile musician who assisted Bach as a violist, cellist, vocal bassist, and music copyist.

Compositional Technique

Altnickol's motet 'Nun danket alle Gott' was sometimes erroneously attributed to J.S. Bach and features frequent alternation between homophonic and freely polyphonic sections, showing an early Romantic sensibility.

Composer Biography

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, one of J.S. Bach's sons, was known as the 'Bückeburg Bach' and was considered the 'strongest player' of his father's clavier compositions by his brother Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.

Performer Biography

Frieder Bernius, the conductor, received the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig in 2009, acknowledging his decades-long engagement with the works of J.S. Bach, his pupils, and his family.

Interpretation

Frieder Bernius is recognized as a pioneer of historical performance practice, having founded his own Baroque orchestra in 1985 and established the International Festival of Early Music.

Compositional Technique

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach's motet 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme' incorporates choral writing from his father J.S. Bach's cantatas, passions, and oratorios, including a four-part chorale from BWV 140.

Composer Biography

Johann Christoph Altnickol married J.S. Bach's daughter Elisabeth Juliane Friederica in 1749 and was among the beneficiaries when Bach's musical estate was divided in 1750.