A Musical Offering – Le Caravansérail

It was in 1747 that Johann Sebastian Bach received an invitation from King Frederic II of Prussia. Bach travelled with Wilhelm Friedmann — his eldest son — to Potsdam, where Carl Philipp Emanuel, his second eldest son, was accompanist to the king’s court. This was the famous visit during which Johann Sebastian improvised a ricercar or fugue in three voices on a theme supplied by the monarch and later led him to compose the Musical Offering.

This recording presents sections of Bach’s Musical Offering, including the Trio Sonata, side by side with Trios by both Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philip Emanuel. The intention was to shed light on the familial character of Bach’s visit to Potsdam and Berlin in 1747 and its musical consequences. The importance of this gathering between the three most famous members of the Bach family and the impact it had on their respective lives and careers cannot be overestimated. For Johann Sebastian himself, however, this was to be brief: he died three years later in 1750.