Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
The second surviving son of J.S. Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel was the most innovative and idiosyncratic member of an extremely talented musical family. His music, unlike that of his father or that of the master he influenced, Haydn, did not define an era so much as reveal a deeply personal response to the musical conventions of his time.
C.P.E. Bach could play his father's technically demanding keyboard pieces at sight by the time he was seven. An exceptional student in areas other than music, he enrolled at the University of Leipzig in 1731 to study law, then transferred to the University of Frankfurt an der Oder. He graduated in 1734 but remained in that town giving keyboard lessons, involving himself in public concerts, and learning the composer's craft.
By 1740, Bach was in Berlin as harpsichordist to Frederick the Great of Prussia. Here, he was first exposed to Italian opera seria, and its dramatic style infiltrated his instrumental music. Little of this was heard at court, where Bach accompanied the flutist-king in one reactionary concerto after another by Quantz. He made several attempts to find a new position, but the stress of the king's disfavor was partially relieved in 1756 when Frederick became distracted by the Seven Years' War and was frequently away from the court. Bach found a select audience for his remarkable and experimental series of keyboard works such as the so-called "Prussian" and "Württemberg" sonatas (composed in the early 1740s) and the Sonatas with Varied Repeats (1760). Bach finally got himself released from Frederick's service in 1768 in order to succeed Telemann as cantor at the Johanneum in Hamburg, also serving as music director for the city's five major churches; he held this post until his death.
Stylistically distant from his father's rigorous polyphony, C.P.E. Bach was something of a proto-Romantic; he was the master of Empfindsamkeit, or "intimate expressiveness." The dark, dramatic, improvisation-like passages that appear in some of Mozart's and Haydn's works are due in part to his influence; in time, his music became known all over Europe. His impulsive works for solo keyboard, which lurch into unexpected keys, change tempo and dynamics abruptly, and fly along with wide-ranging themes, are especially compelling. One account of Bach's after-dinner improvisations described the sweaty, glazed-eyed musician as "possessed," an adjective that would be applied to equally intense and idiosyncratic musicians in the Romantic age. Many of his symphonies are as audacious as his keyboard pieces.
In the area of chamber music, Bach pulled the keyboard out of its subsidiary Baroque role and made it a full partner with, or even leader of, the other instruments. Yet here he fashioned the music to the public's conservative expectations, as he did with his church music. He composed prolifically in many genres, and much of his work awaits public rediscovery.
Bach also produced an important account of performance practice in the second half of the 18th century, translated into English as Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments.
© James Reel /TiVo
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C.P.E. Bach: Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, H. 777
Bart Van Reyn, Il Gardellino, Vlaams Radiokoor
Classical - Released by Passacaille on Feb 25, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
C.P.E Bach: Concerto pour piano, cordes et basse continue en ré mineur (Live)
Christian Zacharias, Orchestre national Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Miscellaneous - Released by XXI Music on Apr 17, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
CPE Bach: Symphonies
Rebecca Miller, Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment
Symphonic Music - Released by Signum Records on Jan 12, 2015
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Jermaine Sprosse: Sonaten für Cembalo und Hammerklavier
Jermaine Sprosse, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Christoph Nichelmann, Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch
Classical - Released by Rondeau Production on Oct 6, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le clavecin baroque
Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Anne Gallet, Christiane Jaccottet
Classical - Released by Claves Records on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
C.P.E. Bach: 6 Organ Sonatas
Classical - Released by Challenge Classics on May 9, 2014
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Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach: 5 Trio Sonatas (Played in Quartet)
Christian Delafontaine, Friedmann Sarnau, Philippe Mermoud
Chamber Music - Released by VDE-GALLO on Jan 11, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Harp Recital
Chamber Music - Released by Claves Records on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classical Piano Favorites
Classical - Released by The Playlist Spot on Apr 14, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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C.P.E. Bach: Complete Works for Harpsichord and Violin
Alda Stuurop, Anneke Uittenbosch
Classical - Released by Globe on Jan 1, 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach - Mozart - Rossini - Balfe - Bassi - Gariboldi: Eclectic and Singing Oboe
Chamber Music - Released by VDE-GALLO on Aug 16, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Five Flute Trio's
Alda Stuurop, Jacques Ogg, Wilbert Hazelzet
Classical - Released by Globe on Jan 1, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
C.Ph.E.Bach: Organ Sonata in A Minor, H. 85, Wq. 70/4 / Orgelsonate in a-moll (Wq 70:4)
Ulrike Northoff, Organ Gloriosa, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, K&K Verlagsanstalt, Authentic Classical Concerts
Classical - Released by K&K Verlagsanstalt on Nov 1, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cello Concerto in B-Flat Major, H.436
Classical - Released by Bomba-Piter on Jul 31, 2015
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Sons and pupils of Johann Sebastian Bach
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - Daphne on Dec 3, 2014
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C.P.E. Bach: Flute Sonatas
Christiaan Norde, Jacques Ogg, Wilbert Hazelzet
Classical - Released by Globe on Jan 1, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Flute Concerto In D Minor, Wq. 83
Classical - Released by RHI on Sep 14, 2015
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18th Century Harp Music (Digitally Remastered)
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on Aug 27, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nikolai Petrov: Piano Fantasies By C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Schumann
Classical - Released by Pipeline Music on Nov 29, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandes epocas de la Música: J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, W.F. Bach
Ars Rediviva Ensemble, Orquesta de Cámara de Jerusalem Kol-Israel
Classical - Released by JamadaClassics on Nov 17, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo