3 Bach Magnifcats: J.S. Bach, J.C. Bach & C.P.E. Bach

This celebration of one of the most prodigiously talented musical families—father and two sons—is also a wonderful and varied programme of three Magnificat settings. Father Johann Sebastian’s, the best known, is gloriously done by Arcangelo, with some spirited singing and energised orchestral playing. Johann Christian, the most cosmopolitan of the family, gives us a compact and rather Italianate setting while CPE Bach, perhaps JS’s most talented son, expands his Magnificat to 40 minutes. And what a setting it is—thrilling from the first notes, it just gets better.