Johann Christian Fischer

Johann Christian Fischer (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1733 – London, 29 April 1800) was one of the most celebrated oboists of the second half of the eighteenth century and a composer whose output was concentrated almost entirely on the concerto. His career unfolded mainly within London's musical life.

According to Charles Burney, Fischer received a musical education alongside reading and writing. He began with the violin, but switched to the oboe almost for amusement, discovering that through the reed he could express what he felt better than with the bow. He studied with Alessandro Besozzi.

From 1760 he was a member of the chapel of King Augustus III of Poland in Dresden. After its dissolution in 1764 he moved to Berlin, to the court of Frederick the Great. That same year he performed in Paris to very enthusiastic reviews, and in 1765 he was in The Hague, where the Mozart family heard him. He arrived in London, where his first concert, in 1768, included the first public solo performance on the newly invented piano of a work by J. C. Bach. He was soon engaged to play a concerto every night at Vauxhall Gardens, and in 1774 he joined the chamber group of Queen Charlotte, although his formal appointment did not come until 1780.

He lived in London for the rest of his life. In 1780 he married Mary, the eldest daughter of Thomas Gainsborough, despite the painter's opposition; the marriage was brief. Mozart harshly criticised him in Vienna in 1787, in contrast to the general appreciation. According to Burney, he died after suffering a stroke while playing for the royal family, and he bequeathed his manuscripts to the king.

His output consists chiefly of concertos, written largely for his own use. The early ones show a great deal of sequential writing and frequent changes of key; in the London concertos the organisation gains clarity. The finale rondo of his first concerto inspired keyboard variations, among them those by Mozart.

Fischer holds a prominent place in the history of the oboe for his virtuosity and for the dissemination of his music in London, although much of his work survives in scattered sources and a complete published edition does not yet exist.