Emotional landscapes
The two volumes with the complete works for violin and obbligato keyboard instrument by C. P. E. Bach have been missing for a long time.
Two thick volumes of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's imaginative music in the Urtext, easy to read and conveniently paginated for browsing, gave us twelve hours of enjoyable playing. The further we progressed in chronological order, the more we saw how the son emancipated himself from his father and how ingeniously he found new forms.
It was high time for this edition; his trios have never been printed since the 1950s. It contains all 16 works for obbligato keyboard instrument and violin Wq 71-79 and Wq 143-147, originally written for transverse flute, violin and basso continuo. The sonata BWV 1036, erroneously attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, can also be compared here with its later arrangement Wq 145. The f and p can be played on harpsichords with manual couplers, but the pp and ff, which appear more and more frequently, require a fortepiano. A few comments on individual movements may illustrate the wide range of sensitivity: Haschespiel, rippling, high-spirited, profound, sad, very funny, gymnastic, personified instruments: piano excited, violin cool; rich melodic arch.
For us, the most beautiful sonata is the three-movement sonata in c Wq 78 with a large-scale classical sonata movement in which both instruments are engaged in a balanced way, with a tragic operatic aria and an imaginative tarantella. But the highlight is Wq 80: C. P. E. Bach's Sensations. Free Fantasy in F sharp. What happens here with the piano exclamations, which range from deeply sad to sky-high jubilation, and the violin, which answers and soothes with determination, is written proof of CPE-Bach's pioneering art of improvisation (his signature). - It is a pity that he did not compose an opera!
Both volumes contain detailed commentaries on the sonatas, with helpful notes on interpretation, suggestions for ornamentation and cadenzas and a critical report. Truly a magnificent gift to us all on the 300th anniversary of his birth!
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, works for violin and obbligato harpsichord (piano), Urtext edited by Jochen Reutter, interpretation notes by Dagmar Glüxam; Volume 1, UT 50288; Volume 2, UT 50289; € 39.95 each, together € 69.95, Wiener Urtext Edition (Schott/Universal Edition), 2014
