CPE Bach: 1-5 July

[doversoul1]

This week we look at CPE Bach's music and reputation in the light of the sensational rediscovery of much his archive in 1999. Throughout the week, we'll hear recent recordings of this 'new' music. In this episode, Donald Macleod tells the story of the loss – and eventual rediscovery in 1999 – of much of CPE Bach’s music, following a fascinating journey.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006ffg

[MickyD]

Thank you, this looks like absolutely essential listening.

[jayne lee wilson]

Wonderful composer I discovered during the 2014 300th-Celebrations, buying many recordings. Essential part of my inner life now. (And not much room for HIPPs debates here..... I hope....

On the other hand....

I have several sets of the Wq 182, something old, something new, something borrowed, which is true...?
182/5 is an extraordinary creation isn't it? Often in my head....I'll have to get these out again soon..

With the Hamburg or Berlin Symphonies though, there are surprising few cycles, let alone on instruments d'époque...my discovery of the Solamente Naturali Wq 183s on Brilliant last winter, was a great thrill...

[richardfinegold]

One of my first lps was Collegium Aureum with Leonhardt playing one of the Harpsichord Concertos and an oboe Concerto on the flip side. It was issued in the States on an RCA budget label and I played it into oblivion. It was probably a year or so before I actually purchased any thing by his Father, also reputed to be a worthwhile Composer...
These days I turn to the Brilliant box with something like 40 CDs.

[MickyD]

I discovered him in the late 70s when Hogwood and the AAM issued a 2 LP set of the Wq 182 string symphonies and a couple of orchestral ones. An absolute revelation, his music is instantly recognisable, full of wonderful things.

We desperately need BIS to issue the Miklos Spanyi cycle of the keyboard concertos and solo keyboard music in two big boxes - apart from being expensive to buy singly, certain titles are sometimes hard to find. I have asked BIS a couple of times, but they wouldn't commit. I really hope they will one day, as Spanyi's work is a magnificent achievement.

[Bryn]

. . . We desperately need BIS to issue the Miklos Spanyi cycle of the keyboard concertos and solo keyboard music in two big boxes - apart from being expensive to buy singly, certain titles are sometimes hard to find. I have asked BIS a couple of times, but they wouldn't commit. I really hope they will one day, as Spanyi's work is a magnificent achievement.

All those Spanyi recordings are available as separate ‘disc by disc’ lossless downloads from QOBUZ or eClassical, etc. Not that that is any kind of argument against their release in boxed sets of CDs.

[Mal]

Wonderful composer I discovered during the 2014 300th-Celebrations, buying many recordings. Essential part of my inner life now. (And not much room for HIPPs debates here..... I hope....

Looks perfect for that debate!

The two Penguin key recordings of the Hamburgs are Capella Istropolitana, Benda (Naxos) and Pinnock. E. Concert. One of my main attempts to like HIPP, about a decade ago, was listening repeatedly to Pinnock's Haydn and Vivaldi boxes, with Naxos CDs as much needed relief. As a result I sold Pinnock's boxes and have a great love for Naxos.

I heard Suzuki Bach Coll. on the radio playing a CPE Bach Cello Concerto which led to a "must buy" urge. Then I found Bylsma/Leonhardt at a bargain price and thought, "well it's a Penguin key recommendation as well", and bought it. Although I quite liked Bylsma's cello, I did not like the orchestral sound at all, especially after repeated listenings. The Penguins gave Suzuki a rosette as well as a key, I should have noted that, and bought from what I heard on radio. Since then I have, and I'm happy!

During my CPE Bach phase, with the Leonhard debacle in mind, I compared HIPP and modern alternatives of CPE Bach carefully on Spotify Premium. Consistently liked modern, consistently didn't like HIPP. Other examples: Didn't like Manze, E. Concert in the Hamburgs at all, did very much like (penguin rosette winners) Gallois, Toronto Camerata (Naxos) in the flute concertos.

[Bella Kemp]

A wonderful composer always guaranteed to cheer one up. The A minor flute sonata was one of my pieces for Grade 8 back in my dim distant schooldays. Fond memories.

[Pianoman]

Agree wholeheartedly about CPE - I play more of his stuff these days than his dad's...!

The symphonies (sinfonias ?) are truly invigorating works. My 'go to's' at the moment are Rebecca Miller and the OAE on Signum, and an enjoyable (but slightly older) disc of the Berlins from Harmut Haenchen, now on Brilliant.

[Serial_Apologist]

What never ceases to astonish me is just how quickly CPE and one or two other composers of his time - well, lots, actually - made the transition from Baroque contrapuntal to Classical sequencing stylings and forms - a change mid 18th century that was as rapid as Schoenberg's move from tonality to atonality around 1908, but much more universally taken on board in its time.

What both changes illustrated was that in both the above those involved had fully mastered the pre-existing models.

[Mal]

... enjoyable (but slightly older) disc of the Berlins from Harmut Haenchen, now on Brilliant.

It's on Amazon Prime "Limited", which I'm trialling at the moment, and it does sound interesting & lively, but slightly too brilliant for me. The sound on "Bach, C.P.E.: Cello Concertos / Meneses", also on Prime, sounds warmer, and Meneses compares very well to Suzuki in the first cello concerto (a wonderful piece!)

https://classicalcandor.blogspot.com...bel/Bach.C.P.E.

[jayne lee wilson]

Any number of wonderful new releases appeared before and after 2014, so, busy IRL today (and still on painkillers...) I copy my list here from the Composers thread of the time.....there were many more of vocal and chamber music of course, universally praised..including this multi-award winner...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CPE-Bach-Magnificat-Motet-Heilig/dp/B00GTX9WWY/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=cpe+bach+magnificat&qid=1561994261&rnid=1642204031&s=music&sr=1-1

The point about those listed below is that they have an individuality and intensity about them, as well as sheer tonal beauty, which is often much harder to find in earlier recordings gathered into large boxsets..)

So slightly revised from 2014, as ever a rich mix of something old, something new....(BTW Mal, I nearly always find Leonhardt a bit worthy-but-dull, so...I'd never take his recordings as any kind of exemplar. As always it is about individual musicality, not just the instruments or their address. Things have moved on...)


Barokkanerne: Empfindsamkeit! Symphonies and Concertos. LAWO CD. Rec.2012.

One of my discs of the year - two of the best symphonies, two of the most moving and melodically inspired concertos, including that serene summer smile opening of the Oboe Concerto WQ. 165..., soundtrack of my summer (not quite gone, but...) - yet it has a deeply tragic slow movement.

I spent a lot of time sampling, buying & listening to several sets of WQ.182. BIG differences in sound and shape! If you have Pinnock you won't need further persuasion of their merits, but later performers have added some warmth, timbral subtlety and richness of sound and expression.
I always come back to:
Symphonies wq. 182 1-6 Kammerorchester Stuttgart/Wolfram Christ, Hanssler 2014.

AS I wrote in July, "from the moment it goes on, you just know it's special; not just the usp of the fortepiano continuo, uniquely warm and full, singing out so fulfillingly as it does - but for the agility, fluidity and beauty of the strings themselves, led (on modern instruments) by Wolfram Christ, 20-years the lead violist of the Berliner Philharmoniker..."

The largely forgotten Cafe Zimmerman CPE anthology on Alpha (2005), which has 4 of the WQ.182 set and two delectable concertos (cello & harpsichord) is marvellous too - possibly my favourites of all the WQ. 182 performances.

Would be very churlish not to mention Hartmut Haenchen, CPE Bach-doyen of them all, but that's another story...

[doversoul1]

Ana-Marija Markovina, piano
Keyboard Concerto in D minor, Wq 23
Michael Rische, piano

I wouldn’t insist that modern piano has no place in the pre-modern works but when the programme is about the composer and his/her life, I’d have thought the instruments from the period would make the programme more interesting.

[doversoul1]

What most extraordinary music this is!

Free Fantasie in F sharp minor, Wq 67
Andreas Staier, fortepiano

[Serial_Apologist]

What most extraordinary music this is!

Free Fantasie in F sharp minor, Wq 67
Andreas Staier, fortepiano

Yes, in some ways it anticipated Busoni's late piano music, all those recondite key changes. Only 170 years' catching up to do there, dovers!