Johann Friedrich Fasch (probably) Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Imagine a student audaciously labelling his composition with the name of a prominent local composer and then playing the work with fellow students to music enthusiasts in a nearby café.
This is what Fasch did in his youth, passing off the composition as one by prominent Leipzig composer Georg Philipp Telemann and having it praised as one of that composer’s best.
It was an early triumph for Fasch who became one of the most important German contemporaries of Johann Sebastian Bach, yet we don’t know of him today.
Samantha Owens sheds some light on this shadowy figure.
Music Details:
FASCH: Ouverture, from Ouverture suite in D major (FWV K:D3) - Kammerorchester Basel, Julia Schröder (dir/vn) (DHM 88697 44641)
KUHNAU: Chorale, from Cantata, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern - The King’s Consort, Robert King (cond)
(HYPERION CDA 67059)
TELEMANN: Komm o Schlaf, und lass mein Leid, from Germanicus - Nuria Rial (sop), Kammerorchester Basel
(DHM 88697 92256)
FASCH: Allegro from Concerto in C for bassoon concertato, strings, and basso continuo (FWV L:c 1) - Sergio Azzolini (bn), La Stravaganza Köln (CPO 777 015 )
FASCH: Du solt Gott, deinen Herrn, lieben, from Cantata Du sollst Gott, deinen Herrn, lieben (FWV D: D 10) - Klaus Mertens (bass), Das Kleine Konzert, Hermann Max (cond) (CPO 999 594)
FASCH: Allegro II, from Quadro in F major for 2 oboes, obligato bassoon and basso continuo (FWV N:F2) - Katharina Arfken (dir/ob), Ann-Kathrin Brüggemann (ob), Donna Agrell (bn), Karl-Ernst Schröder (lute), David Sinclair (string bass), Jörg-Andreas Botticher (hpd) (Harmonia Mundi HMC 905251)
FASCH: Concerto in D (FWV L: D3) - Il Gardellino (Accent ACC 24252)
FASCH: Air, from Ouverture suite in D major (FWV K:D3) - Kammerorchester Basel, Julia Schröder (dir/vn) (DHM 88697 44641)
