Sensitive instead of bold

Although the organ music occupies only a marginal place in the oeuvre of Bach's second eldest son, its typical "Empfindsamkeit" can be seen as exemplary of the stylistic development from the late Baroque to the Classical period - or, depending on your point of view, of a painful loss of quality in organ music in its "decadent" phase.

17 years after the publication of the first Urtext edition with the six organ sonatas, a second volume is now available in the same format, containing the "smaller works" in their entirety for the first time. Until now, they were only available in partial editions. Of the six fugues - some of which Marpurg quoted as examples in his theoretical textbooks - the one in C minor (preceded by a short fantasia) stands out in particular. Its tempestuous gesture is somewhat wistfully reminiscent of the compositional daring that the composer ventured in his other keyboard music, but mostly denied himself at the organ. A curiosity is the chorale prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, which expands Johann Sebastian Bach's well-known Orgelbüchlein chorale with "sensitive" preludes and interludes.

In addition, the volume contains (alongside other works such as the well-known Preludio in D, a trio and five chorale movements) a series of pieces for musical clocks and barrel organs, some of which are extremely delicate in terms of playing technique and expand the genre of "flute clock pieces" in a welcome way. A convincing interpretation of all these works places high demands on the player's creative and articulatory imagination. The exemplary preface, the comprehensive critical report, several alternative versions and the interpretative notes by Gerhard Weinberger - a brief summary of the relevant information from Bach's Experiment on the true way of playing the piano - provide the necessary information and also give suggestions for the realization of some passages that are only hinted at chordally.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Smaller Works for Organ (Complete Organ Works II), edited by Jochen Reutter, UT 50149, € 24.95, Wiener Urtext Edition (Universal Edition/Schott), Vienna 2012