J C Bach

Johann Christian Bach was born in Leipzig in September 1735, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and his second wife Anna Magdalena. After his father’s death in 1750 he travelled to Berlin to study with his older half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel, and in 1754 left for Italy — an unusual decision for a member of the Bach family. He converted to Catholicism, studied with Padre Martini in Bologna, and was appointed organist at Milan Cathedral in 1760.

His early operatic successes in Italy led to a London engagement in 1762, and from that point until his death he was based in England — the only Bach son to settle there. He became music master to Queen Charlotte, organised the long-running Bach-Abel concerts with Carl Friedrich Abel from 1764, and composed symphonies, concertos, keyboard sonatas, and operas in a galant style very different from his father’s. He met the young Mozart in London in 1764, and the encounter shaped Mozart’s early instrumental writing more lastingly than almost any other influence.

Bach’s later years were marked by professional decline and financial trouble. He died in London in January 1782, a year before Mozart’s *Idomeneo*. Music Preserved’s archive includes a selection of his symphonies and keyboard concertos in modern performance.