Johann Friedrich Fasch

composer (1688–1758)

German composer Johann Friedrich Fasch was one of the most prominent writers of baroque instrumental music. Throughout his life he kept building vivacious relations with the royal court in Dresden and selected group of musicians that gathered around the Prince-Elector of Saxony and the Polish King.

The orchestra of Dresden was undoubtedly one of the top orchestras of that time. Its glamour greatly inspired not only J. Fr. Fasch, but also Johann Joachim Quantz, Georg Philipp Telemann, Antonio Vivaldi and many other composers who considered it to be a great honour to compose music for such an ensemble.

Number of various adaptations and modifications of Fasch’s pieces shows that they were performed quite a lot for at least 30 years. It was very specific for Dresden orchestra that “premier Violon“ Johann Georg Pisendel didn’t insist only on ensemble discipline, but he had also built a specific continuously updated repertoire.

We may therefore see a new practice in use, that in which the repertoire pieces are constantly transcribed and adapted to meet coming fashion trends. Valuable evidence of such practice is Pisendel’s work itself, that is to say his arrangements of various pieces including those of Fasch. Such arrangements usually concerned instrumentation (often we find additional integration of fashionable transverse flutes), orchestration size (choral use of wooden wind-instruments of 2 or in operas even 3 players a voice) and often virtuoso diminutions in the concertmaster’s part.

Titles for sale:
Ouverture g minor FWV K: g 5 - Johann Friedrich Fasch (edited by Václav Luks)

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