With this third CD in their complete recording of the Johann Christian Bach Op. 6 symphonies, the Hanover Band move on to rather stronger musical ground. The frothy Italianate music of the composer’s Italian and early London years was behind him; these pieces, dating from the late 1760s and published in Amsterdam in 1770, though still of course Italian-influenced in their formal clarity and their melodic style, are sturdier music, more carefully composed, more symphonic in feeling. Both the E flat works in this set have something of the solidity and warmth associated with that key, and each has a C minor Andante; the G major’s first movement has the confident ring and thematic contrasts of his mature music, and the D major has Mannheim crescendos and some delightful textures, with flutes and divided violas, in its charming and slightly playful middle movement. The set ends with Bach’s single minor-key symphony, the G minor work, very similar in spirit to Mozart’s No. 25; this piece, often recorded before, shows an unfamiliar side to his musical personality. Anthony Halstead and his players convey the strength and the spirit of the music convincingly.
The lively finales all go with a swing, and the opening movements have plenty of energy – I liked the management of the quite complex textures in the D major work, for example, as well as the general rhythmic vitality. The slow movements are not always quite so persuasive: that of the first E flat work seems coolly played (and surely the harpsichord continuo is too active and too prominent), and that of the second E flat one is a shade slow and wanting in flow. The third C minor slow movement here, the dramatic centrepiece of the G minor Symphony, is again a little overdeliberate and becomes detached and modest in expressive impact. But generally these are strong and appealing performances of some attractive and unfamiliar music, clearly, slightly drily recorded, and admirers of the London Bach and his music need not hesitate.'