Description
For the penultimate volume of his edition of CarlPhilipp Emanuel Bach's complete solo keyboardworks, a project he launched nearly thirty yearsago, Miklos Spanyi turns to the organ.Bach is remembered as a master of the clavichordand fortepiano- but the organ? In 1755, hecomposed four sonatas for Princess Anna Amalia'snew palace organ in Berlin, works intimate enoughfor a royal amateur yet rich with the expressivedepth that defined his art. A contemporarymarvelled that Bach could unite "the deepestsecrets of art with everything that taste treasures"at the organ. These sonatas, together with amysterious Adagio in D minor, whose layeredrevisions offer a rare window into Bach'scompositional workshop, reveal a lesser-known butcompelling side of his output.Spanyi performs on a Saxon-style organ in theCalvary Church in Szombathely, Hungary, built in1986 by the Eule factory and modelled on theSilbermann tradition directly connected to the Bachfamily. Tuned to 415 Hz in period temperament, itbrings an authenticity of colour and characterperfectly suited to this music. Few in number, theseorgan works are no mere footnotes- they areessential C.P.E. Bach.
