Douglas Cardwell plays the Fischer Timpani Concerto for 8 Timpani

Douglas Cardwell plays the Fischer Symphonie mit acht obligaten Pauken (Timpani Concerto for 8 Timpani).
Johann Carl Christian Fischer (1752-1807), a little-known composer, theater director, and music copyist at the Schwerin court in northern Germany, wrote the Symphonie mit acht obligaten Pauken before 1792, the year he retired from the employ of Herzog Friedrich Franz I. Fischer was responsible for ceremonial pageantry at the Lugwigslust palace. It is indeed possible that he arranged for a performance of the work, requiring four pairs of timpani for some court function. For many years this work has been attributed to Johann Wilhelm Hertel. However, in a 1977 dissertation "Studien über das Musikschaffen Johann Christian und Johann Wilhelm Hertels," Reinhard Diekow convincingly ascribes this work to Fischer. Even though the work is bound with symphonies by both Hertels, calligraphic and internal evidence indicate that it was composed much later, for the musical style is far from the baroque-textured works of the Hertels. The work survives in two formats: one, a set of parts in Fischer's hand, and two, in a 19th-century score collation of the parts. Diekow also states that the paper on which the parts are copied is from the late 18th century and quite different from the paper used to copy the Hertels' music earlier in the century.
The work is not really a symphony, but a concerto for timpani, including a written-out cadenza at the end of the first movement. On the title page to the score there is an interesting diagram for the placement of the eight drums in a semi-circle. The tuning is G A B c d e f and g, and the work basically exploits the timpani as a bass instrument. Occasionally it functions in a melodic way. The opening allegro movement is in concerto form with the timpani functioning first as part of the tutti ensemble, playing mainly tonic and dominant pitches, and second as a solo instrument playing Alberti bass-like patterns or doubling the melody. The cadenza at the end of this movement is written out by Fischer and it forms the basis of the one performed. The adagio movement provides a brief transition to the rondo-like finale. In keeping with the improvisational style of 18th-century military timpani playing, further embellishment is added to the solo part throughout the entire work.