Rousset, Christophe (harpsichord) - Bach Dynasty, The

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The overwhelming figure of Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the universal geniuses of humanity, has for too long overshadowed the other members of his illustrious dynasty. Yet the musicians among the Bachs were many, and very different from each other. Today we are discovering Johann Sebastian’s ancestors and predecessors; but, although they are better known, his four composer sons are still not estimated at their true worth, as genuine creators with highly individual personalities. Their principal fault is to bear the name of Bach; their problem with regard to posterity was to make a reputation of their own, while hoping to avoid the inevitable comparison with their father. But that is precisely the most interesting thing about them. Dominated by a crushing paternal superego, they had no choice but to be resolutely modern, and to find their own path by escaping from that gigantic shadow. Which they did – and it was by no means easy. Today, these sons of the Kantor disappoint the expectations of many music-lovers, insofar as they do not duplicate their father’s genius. But are they not all the more admirable for not having tried to be pale copies of Johann Sebastian? Instead of which, they were creative musicians in their own right, incontestable masters of the pre-Classical era, who broke with the late Baroque and led directly to Haydn and Mozart.