Bach: Complete Keyboard Concertos, Vol. 16

Chronique

The keyboard concertos of C.P.E. Bach, now the subject of an ongoing series on Sweden's BIS label, are as adventurous and sometimes as frustrating as other works in his huge output. Consider the three keyboard concertos on this elegantly recorded disc. The opening Concerto in D major for harpsichord, two horns, two flutes, and strings dwarfs the solo harpsichord, with the horns generally in action with big, spread-out lines. It almost seems like an anti-concerto, with the soloist providing interludes rather than being the center of attention -- and the concerto apparently at one time had trumpet parts that have been lost. Most intriguing is the Sonatina in B flat major, Wq 110, which, like the other concertos on the disc, was reworked several times by the composer and required some interpretive decisions on the performers' part as to what forces to use. It may have been a two-harpsichord concerto, but several editions apparently specified an optional early piano for one of the parts. A major attraction of the disc is the chance to hear the rare tangent piano, played by its champion, Miklós Spányi. This was a fortepiano-like instrument in which the strings were struck not by hammers but by small uncovered sticks. It has quite a range of timbres across the keyboard, and these are nicely exploited here in combination with the contrast between piano and harpsichord. Most of these works are in a pleasant galant style; they don't have the chromatic experiments that casual listeners often associate with C.P.E. Bach. The final Concerto in A minor for keyboard and strings, Wq 21 (it is again played on a tangent pinao), is something else again, however. It sounds like the Vivaldi Concerto Grosso in A minor, Op. 3/8, with the soloist taking off from imposing unison lines. But it's sort of like Vivaldi stepped into a hall of mirrors; the lines extend themselves in unexpected ways, and the final movement takes some delightful harmonic turns. Worth the money to hear the tangent piano alone, and highly recommended to C.P.E. lovers.

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