Which Bach are you?

You are the international celebrity of the Bach family, the vivacious big shot celebrated across Europe in your heyday.

CPE Bach was JS Bach’s fifth child, and during his lifetime was much better known than his famous father. His music was energetic, wild and almost avant garde by the standards of the 18th century. It bridged the gap between the Baroque era, and the Classical era of Mozart and Haydn that followed.

CPE Bach was an expressive and popular individual, and very successful. But perhaps the sheer unpredictability of his music was the reason it went out of fashion in the 19th century. Only recently, especially with the 300th anniversary of his birth in 2014, is CPE’s true genius being reappraised.

You can hear his music in two OAE concerts this season, starting with his Sinfonia in C during Bach: A Family Affair on Sunday 30 October.

You are the grand master of the Bach family, a genius whose extraordinary music becomes ever-more popular as the centuries go by.

JS Bach was born in 1685 in a family dynasty of successful musicians working across northern Germany. Full of complexities, he had a troubled childhood and in later life a reputation as a cantankerous individual with issues with authority. At the same time he had a playful streak (see his ‘Coffee Cantata’), was devoutly religious and put family first, playing an important role in the musical education of his successful sons.

Bach wrote an extraordinary amount of music, spanning religious and secular compositions. You can hear many of his masterpieces, including the B Minor Mass, Brandenburg Concertos and Christmas Oratorio with the OAE in 2016/17. And you can compare his music with that of his sons at our Bach: A Family Affair concert at St John’s Smith Square on Sunday 30 October.

You are the complicated genius of the Bach family, perhaps the most naturally gifted of the lot, but in danger of squandering your immense talent.

WF Bach was the oldest of JS Bach’s sons, and by many accounts his father’s favourite. He was born in 1710 and worked in various German cities, and was best known as a virtuoso keyboard player and master of improvisation.

However, he struggled to hold down a job after his father’s death, and died in poverty in Berlin in 1784. That said, he wrote some dazzling music, such as the piece in our Bach: A Family Affair concert, his Harpsichord Concerto in F Minor.

JCF (Johann Christoph Friedrich) Bach
You are the steady, sensible member of the Bach family, working industriously and contentedly, and not worrying about setting the world alight.

One of the younger members for the Bach family, JCF Bach was born in 1732 and spent most of his adult life in Bückeburg, a small provincial city that was capital of a tiny independent principality. Compared to his father and brothers, he had a relative stable existence – with success writing music very much in the style of the times, without breaking new ground.

You can decide whether you like JCF’s music more than his brothers at our Bach: A Family Affair concert on Sunday 30 October at St John’s Smith Square.