Johann Friedrich Fasch was born near Weimar 1688 and died in Zerbst 1758. As a child he was a choirboy at the famous Thomasschule in Leipzig after which he studied theology and law and founded the “zewyte ordinaire Collegium Musicum” with renowned members, such as Johann David Heinichen, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel and Johann Georg Pisendel. In 1714, unable to procure aristocratic patronage for a journey to Italy, Fasch instead travelled to Darmstadt to study composition for three months. After his studies, Fasch travelled extensively through Germany and visited and performed at several courts. In 1722 Fasch accepted the post of Kapellmeister in Zerbst where he remained for the rest of his life.
Double-reed instruments played an important role in his œuvre. He wrote several bassoon concerti, at least one sonata for bassoon, and an abundance of other chamber music works containing oboes and bassoons. The work performed today is a lovely, joyful composition for the unusual combination of violin, traverso, bassoon and basso-continuo.
The most important element is undoubtedly the transition that Fasch’s work makes between baroque and classical styles: according to Gottfried Küntzel, Fasch “developed the vocabulary of a new musical language on a traditional formal framework; in some of his later works, he quite remarkably anticipated the idioms – but not the formal structures – subsequently used by Gluck, Haydn and Mozart”.
In 1900, Reimann asserted that Fasch’s style was an important link between the Baroque and Classical periods, and that he was one of those who “set instrumental music entirely on its feet and displaced fugal writing with modern ‘thematic’ style’”.