Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach The Complete Keyboard Concertos

After nearly 30 years at the court of Frederick the Great in Berlin, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach took up the position of cantor and music director in Hamburg, left vacant by the death of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann. Even though his new duties included teaching as well as providing music for the five city churches of Hamburg, Bach nevertheless still found the time to compose keyboard sonatas and keyboard concertos as well as to present secular concerts. Two of the works on this disc, the Concertos in F major and in E flat major, were composed soon after the move to Hamburg.

Two cycles that have consistently been receiving high praise from reviewers are Miklós Spányi’s survey of C.P.E. Bach’s Music for Solo Keyboard and of the same composer’s Keyboard Concertos.

Three years have passed since the release of the previous volume in this series, but now Miklós Spányi continues his traversal of the keyboard concertos of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, a series which in Gramophone has been called a ‘unique monument to one of the 18th century's most underrated composers’. Once again Spányi has joined forces with the Hungarian period band Concerto Armonico, and together they offer us the first four works in a set of six, the Sei Concerti per il cembalo concertato. Composed during the early 1770s, the Sei Concerti were among the few concertos that C.P.E. Bach didn’t write specifically for himself to play. In order to secure a large number of subscribers for the scores, he advertised their publication repeatedly, marketing the works as ‘easy’.

On the penultimate disc in his series of the complete keyboard concertos by C.P.E. Bach, Miklós Spányi completes the set of six concertos (Sei Concerti, Wq 43/1-6) begun on Volume 17. Bach finished working on the set in 1771, but had already advertised its coming publication. In a bid to reach as many potential subscribers as possible, he marketed the works as ‘easy’, and also included optional parts for wind instruments: two horns in all the fast movements, replaced by flutes in the slow movements. Bach’s aim was to make the works appealing to both players and listeners, and the result is a set of highly attractive pieces, with approachable melodies and dance rhythms but also displaying a new freedom with regard to conventional concerto form. With the expert support of the Hungarian period band Concerto Armonico, Miklós Spányi performs the solo parts of Wq 43/5 and 43/6 on a harpsichord, a copy of an instrument from 1745.

With this disc, Miklós Spányi’s survey of the complete keyboard concertos of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, begun in 1995, reaches its conclusion. But over the years it has already been described as ‘a unique monument to one of the 18th century's most underrated composers’ (Gramophone) as well as ‘one of the most important and monumental recording projects of the century so far’ (MusicWeb International) and ‘an epoch-making achievement… in the history of recorded music’ (klassik-heute.de). Together, the 64 works – composed over a period of fifty-five years (1733-88) – form an endlessly fascinating picture of their composer’s various choices made in the course of a long career.

With his fifth volume of CPE Bach's complete keyboard concertos, Miklós Spányi comes to three works composed in the mid-1740s, which he plays on a copy of a Silbermann fortepiano of that period. The choice isn't only determined by the existence of such instruments at Frederick the Great's court, where Carl Philipp was employed, but also because the keyboard layout is more suited to the fortepiano than the harpsichord, and because the A major work here – a first recording, like that of the D major – includes the marking pianissimo. The present instrument is light and silvery in tone, which makes for some difficulties of proportion in the D major, performed with additional manuscript parts found in Brussels for trumpets and drums.

These concertos demonstrate the emerging inventiveness of CPE's musical personality within the trend towards public concerts in the mid-18th century. In fits and starts there are those sparsely etched landscapes which at their best can captivate us. If decorum is sometimes overworked, Bach's originality is even more remarkable given that the ritornello structure inherited from his father's generation, with its alternating solo and string sections, is less easy to sustain in a relatively uncontrapuntal style. Contrast is therefore a key element, and Bach needs a soloist who can discern how the relationship between the harpsichord and the orchestra can be manipulated to good effect.

On this recording Miklós Spányi has exchanged his previous harpsichord or fortepiano for a tangent piano: it's like a fortepiano but has the strings struck vertically by tangents (as in the clavichord) rather than at an angle by hammers. Its tone could also be modified by raising the dampers completely or only in the treble, employing only one of each note's two strings (una corda), inserting a leather strip ('moderator') between tangents and strings, or creating a harp-like effect by damping the strings with small pieces of cloth.

C.P.E. Bach was a marvelous composer, and it's rather amazing to consider that until BIS began this estimable series, the vast majority of his more than 60 keyboard concertos remained unknown. In addition to the concertos, Bach wrote another very interesting series of works that he called "Sonatinas", which seem to be suites of movements for solo and orchestra in free form. The two included here, for example, consist of: first, an Andante ad arioso twice interrupted by keyboard solos, followed by an Allegro finale; and second, a Larghetto, Allegro, and a concluding Alla Polacca. Both are delightful miniatures.

Having received numerous awards and distinctions, this series is by now self-recommending. As anyone who has encountered previous volumes knows, Miklós Spányi’s combination of musicianship and expertise and the wonderful qualities of this unjustly ignored music is a guarantee for an unusually satisfying listening experience. For this volume a change in recording venue has taken place. Previous instalments were recorded in Hungary with the Hungarian period orchestra Concerto Armonico, whereas the present recording was made in Finland, Spányi’s country of residence, with Opus X, a young Finnish band.