Carl Philipp Emanuel remembered the Bach household in Leipzig as a “pigeon coop,” with people swarming in and out all the time. Conversing with the Bach biographer Forkel, Carl Philipp recounts, “With his many activities Bach hardly had time for the most necessary correspondence, and accordingly would not indulge in lengthy written exchanges. But he had the opportunity to talk personally to good people, since his house was full of life.”

School of St. Thomas Leipzig

Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach kept an open house, welcoming friends and colleagues from near and far. “No master of music was apt to pass through Leipzig without making Bach’s acquaintance and letting himself be heard by him.” And that included a good number of the leading figures in contemporary German musical life, including Carl Heinrich and Johann Gottlieb Graun, Franz Benda, Johann Joachim Quantz and the famous husband and wife team of Johann Adolph Hasse and Faustina Bordoni, who came to Leipzig several times. In addition, the Bachs frequently entertained at home, and that always included house concerts.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Triple Concerto in A minor, BWV 1044

The Bach Family © Oxford Bach Soloists

An interesting anecdote relates the visit of the royal Swedish court Capellmeister Conrad Friedrich Hurlebusch, who was considered a “conceited and arrogant clavier player.” He came to Leipzig not to hear Bach, “but to let himself be heard.” Apparently, Bach received him kindly and politely, and listened to his very indifferent performance with patience. “When Hurlebusch was taking his leave, he gave Bach’s oldest son a present of a printed collection of sonatas, exhorting them to study them diligently.” Bach, it is reported “only smiled to himself and did not at all change his friendly behavior to the stranger.” And amongst all that activity, there was the birth of another Bach Baby. Christina Benedicta Bach was baptised on 1 January 1730 in Leipzig. She took the name of her godmother Benedicta Carpzov, the daughter of the archdeacon at St. Thomas. Joy and sorrow were everyday matters, however, and the little girl died four days later on 4 January 1730.

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