Magnificat a 4

Scoring: 2 Oboi, 2 Corni, 2 Violini, Viola, Basso continuo

At less than 20 years of age, the youngest son of the Leipzig cantor of St. Thomas, Johann Sebastian Bach, withdrew from the Lutheran musical tradition of his family: Johann Christian Bach went to Italy, converted to Catholicism there and composed mainly Latin church music between 1757 and 1760. His great successes with operas for Turin, Milan and Naples from 1761 onwards led him all the way to London.

Bach’s church music comprises a number of vespers compositions, some of them large-scale, including this Magnificat a 4 (1760) for soloists, choir and orchestra. The very diversified work gets its additional attraction from distinctively led oboes and horns.