Chamber Music Recital / Symphoniker Hamburg

Mozart is well-known for the comment »He is the father, we are his boys. If we can do anything decently, we learnt it him«. But he was not referring to Johann Sebastian here, but rather to his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, master of the sentimental style, whose Hamburg Symphonies skilfully combined characterful changes of mood with poetic and even heart-rending motifs, very much in the spirit of the 1770s »Sturm und Drang« movement. Another composer known for his liking for Bach was Felix Mendelssohn. The lively opening movement and the stormy outbursts in the allegro of his D minor Violin Concerto, which Mendelssohn wrote in 1822 aged only 13, betray not only the influence of Bach senior, but again that of his son Carl Philipp Emanuel as well. The young composer’s brilliant use of Bachian theme-work and the Romantic magic of the score continue to amaze and delight to this day.