C.P.E.Bach: Symphonies 1-4, Cello Concerto in A

The English Concert

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Original Recording Format: DSD 64
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The four symphonies recorded here display the eternal youth of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s musical spirit, although he was, by eighteenth- century reckoning, already an old man (sixty-one!) when he wrote them. Their subjective intensity, a style referred to then and now as Empfindsamkeit (ultra-sensitivity), was perhaps the com-poser’s own elixir of youth. Bach’s life falls neatly into three distinct periods.

He learned his trade literally at his father’s elbow, as a student not just of organ, harpsichord, clavichord and composition but of all the skills necessary to be a complete Kapellmeister. He sat at his father’s table copying out material for the Sunday cantata or the weekly Collegium Musicum concerts and met the many colourful characters who visited the Bachs’ Leipzig home. At the age of twenty-four, in 1738, he became harpsichordist to Crown Prince Frederick, later ‘the Great,’ King of Prussia.

It is hard to imagine how disorientating this change must have been to the young musician who had served his apprenticeship under Johann Sebastian. He found himself surrounded by colleagues, notably Johann Joachim Quantz, Carl Heinrich Graun and the Benda brothers, whose reputations and salaries far exceeded his own but whose talents were clearly inferior. In addition, Bach was now the subject of a royal employer whose tyranny extended to censoring his musicians’ works on matters of musical style. As Burney wrote, “with respect to the  general and  national style of composition and performance [in Berlin], it seems at present, to be formed so much upon one  model [i.e. the King’s], that it precludes all invention and genius.” But perhaps the strangest change Bach had to cope with was the almost complete lack of interest Frederick showed in church music, to which generations of Bachs had devoted their lives.

Tracklist

Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.
1.
Symphony No. 1 in D major, Wq. 183/1 - I. Allegro di molto
06:17
2.
Symphony No. 1 in D major, Wq. 183/1 - II. Largo
01:54
3.
Symphony No. 1 in D major, Wq. 183/1 - III. Presto
03:07
4.
Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Wq. 183/2 - I. Allegro di molto
04:12
5.
Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Wq. 183/2 - II. Larghetto
01:13
6.
Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Wq. 183/2 - III. Allegretto
05:38
7.
Cello Concerto in A major, Wq. 172 - I. Allegro di molto
06:26
8.
Cello Concerto in A major, Wq. 172 - II. Largo con sordini, mesto
08:08
9.
Cello Concerto in A major, Wq. 172 - III. Allegro assai
05:31
10.
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Wq. 183/3 - I. Allegro di molto
05:15
11.
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Wq. 183/3 - II. Larghetto
02:06
12.
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Wq. 183/3 - III. Presto
03:00
13.
Symphony No. 4 in G major, Wq. 183/4 - I. Allegro assai
03:16
14.
Symphony No. 4 in G major, Wq. 183/4 - II. Poco Andante
05:01
15.
Symphony No. 4 in G major, Wq. 183/4 - III. Presto
03:22

Total time: 01:04:26

Additional information

Label

SKU

HMU907403

Qualities

, ,

Channels

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Artists

Composers

Genres

,

Conductors

Instruments

,

Original Recording Format

Producer

Robina G. Young

Recording Engineer

Brad Michel, (DSD engineer – Chris Barrett)

Recording location

Lyndhurst Hall, London

Recording Software

Pyramix

Recording Type & Bit Rate

DSD64

Release DateMay 16, 2014

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