The one fact most music appreciation students remember about J. S. Bach is that he fathered some 20 children, with the assistance of two (consecutive) wives. And the best students may also recall that some of his offspring followed Papa Bach’s footsteps to become successful musicians and respected composers in the second half of the 18th century.

Orchestra Nova's Jung-Ho Pak.

^{Greg Marino Photography}

Given the ubiquity of Sebastian Bach’s music, it might be safe to assume that his sons’ music might enjoy at least passing familiarity, but this in not the case. Among even the most ardent classical music fans and performers, the music of the sons of Bach is a total mystery because it is almost never programmed.

Because the world of classcial music is so ridiculously inbred, few have seriously challenged the 19th-century judgement that Haydn and Mozart wrote the only music worth considering between the demise of G. F. Handel in 1759 and the first symphonies of Beethoven at the turn of the 19th century. I will save readers my tirade on this topic for the moment and instead laud Orchestra Nova Music Director Jung-Ho Pak for the rewarding program devoted to the music of the Bach family he conducted so ably on Friday (January 29) at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in downtown San Diego.

Opening with J. S. Bach’s beloved Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, Pak then walked his audience through substantial instrumental works by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach and Johann Christian Bach. If this sounds like an academic exercise, be assured that the music ranged from mildly interesting (Wilhelm Friedemann’s two-movement “Sinfonia in D Minor”) to captivating (C.P.E. Bach’s “Sinfonia in A Major”) to downright astounding (Johann Christian’s Symphony in E-flat Major).

And, yes, Pak flavored this hearty meat-and-potatoes menu with a P. D. Q. Bach bouche amuse, “Fuga Meshuga” from “The Musical Sacrifice,” a completely imaginary—but quite humorous—work by the contemporary composer Peter Schickele, who has cleverly created a 21st Bach child (P.D.Q.) as a mask for his satirical lampoons of classical music.

Some bouquets for outstanding playing: to flutists Beth Ross-Buckley and Suzanne Kennedy for their perfectly matched roulades and ravishing sonority in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 4; to bassoonist Ryan Simmons for graceful, melodious turns in the “Fuga Meshuga”; to harpsichordist Mary Barranger for fluent and rhythmically alert continuo playing throughout; and to bassist Michael Weiss for his robust and propulsive bass lines, especially in the C.P.E. Bach “Sinfonia in A Major.”

Overall, the Orchestra Nova projected a well-balanced, warm and energetic body of sound throughout the concert. Under Pak’s ebullient direction, the “Sinfonia in A Major” proved particularly compelling. In spite of its mercurial changes of mood, a hallmark of the favored “sensitive style” of the 1770s, Pak kept his forces cleanly focused and agile.

I was taken by the structural sophistication and melodic gifts of Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach’s “Sinfonia in D Minor,” especially in the outer movements, and by the operatic gusto of Johann Christian Bach’s “Symphony in E-flat Major.” Its slow middle movement suggested the nocturnal mystery of a Mozart opera scene, and its genial finale called to mind the final chorus of a lusty dramma giocosa. Johann Christian was a successful opera composer in London (and was known as the “London Bach”), having run off at age 20 to Italy to study opera on its home turf.

I left the Orchestra Nova concert with the clear notion that a significant body of worthwhile orchestral music awaits discovery by conductors with Pak’s curiosity and sense of adventure. The program is repeated Feb. 1 at La Jolla's Sherwood Auditorium.

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