A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Fischer, Johann

by Carl Ferdinand Pohl

FISCHER, Johann Christian, distinguished oboist, born 1733 at Freiburg (Breisgau), was for some years in the court band at Dresden, then in the service of Frederic the Great, and after a successful concert tour by Mannheim, Holland, and Paris, came to London, and made his first appearance at the Thatched House, June 2, 1768; J. C. Bach playing the 'pianoforte' for the first time at the same concert. Fischer was for many years a great attraction at the Bach-Abel and Vauxhall concerts, and as a member of the Queen's band played frequently before the court. His playing of Handel's fourth oboe concerto at the Handel Commemoration in 1784 so delighted the King that he expressed his satisfaction in a note on his book of the words. (Memoir of Dr. Burney by Mme. D'Arblay, ii. 385.) His tone must have been very powerful since Giardini the violinist characterised it as 'such an impudence of tone as no other instrument could contend with'; and according to the ABCDario 'it was very fine and inexpressibly well-managed.' On the death of Stanley, Master of the King's band (1786), Fischer competed with Burney and others for the vacant post, but Parsons was appointed, and Fischer soon after went abroad, probably in disgust at his failure. Mozart in 1766 as a boy had been enchanted with his playing in Holland, but on hearing him again in Vienna, severely criticises him (letter to his father, April 4,^[1] 1787), and condemns alike his tone, his execution, and his compositions. From 1790 he remained in London. While playing at court he was struck with paralysis, and died April 29, 1800 (see 'Times' of May 1). Kelly, in his 'Reminiscences' (vol. i. 9), gives an anecdote of Fischer's pride as an artist. A certain nobleman having invited him to supper much against his will, said when he arrived, 'I hope, Mr. Fischer, you have brought your oboe in your pocket'; to which he replied, 'No, my lord; my oboe never sups,' and instantly left the house. He was very intimate with Gainsborough, who was a great lover of music, and whose pretty daughter Mary he married, though the father gave a very unwilling consent, foreseeing the short duration of the marriage. (Fulcher's Life of Gainsborough.) There is a fine portrait of Fischer by Gainsborough at Hampton Court (private dining-room, No. 747). Thicknesse mentions a second in full uniform—'scarlet and gold like a colonel of the Foot Guards.'

Zuck and Kellner were his best-known pupils in London. J. C. Bach wrote a quartet for two oboes, viola, and cello, for him, which he often played. His own compositions (of which Fétis and Gerber give a partial list) consist of solos, duets, concertos, quartets, etc. On this point the ABCDario says, 'as a composer his desire to be original often makes him introduce whimsical and outré passages, which nothing but his playing could cover.' Mozart, in spite of his unfavourable opinion of him, immortalised his minuet by writing variations for it (1773), which he often played to display his bravura (Köchel, No. 179). 'This minuet was then all the rage,' as Kelly writes, after hearing Fischer play it in Dublin (Rem. i. 9), and it continued to be the rage for many years.

[ C. F. P. ]

1. See Otto Jahn's 'Mozart,' iii. 303.