Georg Frideric Handel was a composer from the Baroque period. Handel wrote primarily music-dramatic works: 42 operas, 29 oratorios, more than 120 cantatas, trios and duets, which comes to a total amount of almost 2000 arias! Furthermore, he composed English, Italian and Latin sacred music, serenades and odes. Among his instrumental music are several organ concertos, concerti grossi, overtures, oboe sonatas and violinsonates, along with many solo works for harpsichord and organ.

Together with Johann Sebastian Bach, who was born in the same year (1685), Handel is viewed as one of the greatest composers of his time. He was extremely prolific and wrote in total more than 610 works, many of which are still performed today.

Compared to his contemporaries Bach, Telemann and Scarlatti, Handel was by far the most cosmopolitan. When Handel was a child, his father, who was a surgeon at the court of Saxe-Weissenfels, imagined a juridical career for him. But his musical talents did not go unnoticed at the court, which forced the father to let him study music. In Hamburg, Handel befriended Mattheson. Together they visited Buxtehude, the greatest organ player of his time, in 1703 (two years before Bach did). At that time, Handel was already an excellent musician, but it wasn't until his stay in Italy - the land of opera - that his talents and skills truly started to flourish. Back in Germany, he received a position at the court of Hannover, where the noblemen had a connection to the British throne. Thanks to these connections, Handel decided to move to London, after which a puzzling history of intrigues and political games started. For example, it is unclear what the exact political message of his famous Water Music is, which was composed for a boat ride on the river Thames by King George. Initially, Handel focused on Italian opera during his stay in London, but from the 1730s onwards he started composing English spoken oratorios, with the celebrated Messiah at its peak.

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was the third of the four composing sons of Johann Sebastian Bach and Anna Magdalena Wilcken. He is also referred to as the ‘Bückeburg Bach’, since he worked some 40 years at the court of Count William of Schaumburg-Lippe in Bückeburg. In 1750 he was appointed by Count William as a chamber musician. At the moment the Italians Angelo Colonna and Giovanni Battista Sereni were active as concert master and chapel master at the court, through which Bach came to know the style of Italian cantatas and operas.
Both Italians left the court in 1756 and Bach was then appointed as concertmaster. He was not only responsible for the direction of the concerts, he also had to compose new works. This became the start of an intensive work period in which he composed chamber music, piano works, symphonies and oratorios.
When the Count, who formed the center of the cultural life at court, died in 1777, Bach went on to look for new sources of inspiration for his works. He found these during his trip to London in the early summer of 1778 that he made with his eldest son Wilhelm Friedrich Ernst. In London they visited Johann Christian Bach, who made Johann Christoph Friedrich familiar with the music of amongst others Mozart and Gluck through his concerts. These composers would continue to influence him from then on.
Johann Christoph Friedrich returned to Bückeburg, where he led the court chapel to a great reputation. He also wrote many piano works with the help of the pianoforte that he had brought with him from London.
The oeuvre of Johann Christoph Friedrich marks the transition from the Baroque to the Classical period, with works in the Baroque and galant style, and works in which both styles are combined with elements of the classical style. His works are not as well-known as those of his brothers, which is possibly due to the fact that a significant part of his oeuvre was destroyed during the Second World War.