Because I was traveling from Berlin to London on Sunday and had Saturday free, I went to pay my respects at the grave of C. P. E. Bach, whom I greatly admire.
His grave is in St. Michael’s Church (Michaeliskirche), where he served as music director.
The church’s brick exterior looks somewhat austere, but its interior is Baroque, with extensive use of curves, and feels luxurious compared with the exterior.
When I entered, an orchestra happened to be rehearsing. The sound resonated very smoothly, making me wish I could hear the actual performance, though of course I could not.
The ambitious work C. P. E. Bach wrote upon becoming music director of Hamburg in 1768 is the oratorio “The Israelites in the Desert,” Wq.238, H.775. It was composed from the latter half of 1768 into 1769. It has a certain Romantic quality and is said to have influenced Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”1.
C. P. E. Bach’s grave is in the church crypt.
The grave of Telemann, C. P. E. Bach’s godfather and predecessor as Hamburg’s music director, should also be there, but I could not find it.
You can take an elevator up the church tower. At the top, you can look out over the entire city of Hamburg. If you have purchased a Hamburg Card (9.90€), you can go up for 4€.
This church has suffered many fires, and much of it, including the upper part of the tower, which had been wooden, has been rebuilt. These black, melted-looking bricks are probably remnants of a fire.
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Footnotes
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