salomon was already familiar with bach's compositions for violin through bach's son carl philipp emanuel whom he knew from his period in berlin, where he had served from 1764 to 1780 as director of music to prince heinrich of prussia, the younger brother of frederick the great. in 1774 johann friedrich reichardt had reported on salomon's performances of the "magnificent violin solos by bach without accompaniment" in berlin, praising "the great power and sureness with which salomon presented these masterpieces." in london thirty years later, at wesley's 1810 benefit concert in the hanover square rooms, salomon again performed one of the unaccompanied sonatas together with one of the sonatas for violin and harpsichord, with wesley at the keyboard. more of the sonatas bwv 1014–1019 were included in subsequent concerts featuring salomon: two were played for the first time in 1812 in a surrey chapel recital with jacob at the organ.