From the point of view of musical history, the eighteenth century was informed to a great degree by transitions. When around the middle of the century the Baroque era reached a last climax in the masters Bach and Handel, the gradual transition to the sensitive style, to Sturm und Drang (wonderfully manifest, for example, in the works of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach) was no longer to be stopped. From about 1780 this renewal ultimately led into the period of the „Viennese Classic," and continued until well past the turn of the century.
As the most significant characteristics of the new style, one might mention the outstanding importance of the melodic line, its invention, and its intended expression. „Expression" was even newly defined on the basis of three interlocking fundamental ideas: the gallant, the sensitive, and „Strum und Drang."
The concept of the gallant style, originating from seventeenth-century French lute music, was also taken up in Germany around the middle of the eighteenth century, whereby the style of the music had disposed of the contrapuntally thought-out Baroque ideals. Two- to three-part homophonic movements, tonally transparent, in clear formal structures (sonata form, rondo, variation schemes) now predominated. As a rule, the charm of this music is provided by the use of playful-gracious melodies, elegant embellishments, finely crafted motivic work, frequent use of passages in thirds, the sometimes exquisite-colorful sonority, and an emphasis on the upper voices.
The Abbey Church Neresheim (Swabian Alb) is Balthasar Neumann's last work and represents a solitary culmination of late-Baroque sacral architecture. The move from the old church into the newly built chapel began in 1782. On 6 August 1792 a contract for the construction of an organ for the west choir loft of the Abbey Church was made with the Swabian organ builder Johann Nepomuk Holzhay (1741-1908). In its present form, the organ of the Abbey Church Neresheim can be considered one of Europe's most magnificent organs from the time of Mozart.
Other recordings with Christian Brembeck: Seixas, Harpsichord sonatas (M 56867) and The Fantastic Style (M 56871)