Friedrich Hartman Graf, Joachim Quantz, Franz Benda, and CPE Bach
5 instrumentalists
Of the several monarchs whose courting of the Muses has been recorded in history, there is no question that the most talented and prolific was Frederick II, who acceded to the throne of Prussia in 1742 and became known as Frederick the Great. As well as leaving some hundred or so sonatas and several concertos for the transverse flute, the instrument from which he was inseparable, he dedicated a major part of his life to music. As well as Joachim Quantz, his teacher, he employed numerous other noteworthy musicians, including the Graun brothers, the Benda brothers, and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. At the beginning of his reign he had an opera house constructed in Berlin. At his Potsdam palace he received a visit from Johann Sebastian Bach who, after this meeting, composed The Musical Offering. What Frederick was particularly fond of, however, was the galant style which, with its refined and delicately expressive melodies, was a far cry from the contrapuntal complexities of the great Cantor.