Release Date: 12 January 2005
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313245024
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: BACH, CPE
Description
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)Keyboard SonatasCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach was born in Weimar, thesecond son by his first wife of Johann Sebastian Bach,then newly appointed Konzertmeister to the GrandDuke Wilhelm Ernst. He attended the Latin School inCothen, where his father became Court Kapellmeister in1717, and in 1723 moved with the family to Leipzig,where he became a pupil at the Thomasschule, on thestaff of which his father had become Cantor. In 1731 hematriculated as a law student at the University ofLeipzig, embarking on a course of study that had beendenied his father. He continued these studies at theUniversity of Frankfurt an der Oder, and in 1738,rejecting the chance of accompanying a younggentleman on a tour abroad, entered the service of theCrown Prince of Prussia at Ruppin as harpsichordist. Hemoved with the court to Berlin in 1740, on the accessionto the throne of the Prince, better known subsequently asFrederick the Great.In Berlin and at Potsdam, Bach, confirmed as CourtHarpsichordist, had the unenviable task ofaccompanying evening concerts at which the King, anable enough amateur flautist, was a frequent performer.His colleagues, generally of a more conservative bent,included the distinguished flautist and theorist Quantz,the Benda and Graun brothers and other musicians ofsimilar reputation, while men of letters at the courtincluded Lessing. In 1755 he applied for his father's oldposition at the Thomasschule in Leipzig, but wasunsuccessful, his father's former pupil Doles beingappointed to take the place of Johann Sebastian'simmediate successor, Gottlob Harrer. It was not until1768 that Carl Philipp Emanuel was able to escape froma position that he had found increasingly uncongenial,succeeding his godfather Telemann as Cantor at theJohanneum in Hamburg, a city that offered much wideropportunities than Leipzig had ever done. He spent thelast twenty years of his life there. In Berlin he had won awider reputation with his Versuch ??ber die wahre Artdas Clavier zu spielen (Essay on the True Art of ClavierPlaying) and was regarded as the leading keyboardplayerof his day. In Hamburg he continued to enjoy hisestablished position as a man of wide general education,able to mix on equal terms with the leading writers ofhis generation and no mere working musician. He diedin 1788, his death mourned by a generation that thoughtof him as more important than his father, the latterdisrespectfully dubbed 'the old periwig' by his sons.As a composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wasprolific, writing a considerable quantity of music for theharpsichord and for the instrument he much favoured,the clavichord. His music exemplifies the theoriesexpounded in his Versuch, with a tendency to usedramatic and rhetorical devices, a fine command ofmelody and a relatively sparing use of contrapuntalelements that had by now come to seem merelyacademic. In musical terms he is associated withLessing's theories of sentiment, Empfindsamkeit, thecomplement of Enlight
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
Christopher Hinterhuber
