C.P.E. Bach: Solo Keyboard Music, Vol.36

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach published the first
collection in his series 'for Connaisseurs and
Amateurs' in 1779, at the age of 65, and the sixth
and final in 1787, a year before his death.
Throughout the series he continues to develop the
three genres which are featured in it - sonata,
rondo and fantasia. In the sixth collection, the
fantasias and rondos continue to resemble each
other in structure and in stylistic features: abrupt
tempo changes, disruptive rhythms, and constant
harmonic non sequiturs. Bach gives them ample
dimensions, but as in previous collections he
continues to reduce the length of the sonatas, to
the point that Sonata No. 1 is the shortest work of
the collection, although it is in three distinct
movements.

On this amply-filled disc, Miklós Spányi also
includes four other works from Carl Philipp's last
decade which in various ways underline the
composer's boundless curiosity. The Sonata in G
major, Wq 65/48 was composed for an
experimental keyboard instrument with a bowing
device coupled to it - a 'Bogenclavier' - while Bach
in the set of variations Wq 118/9 gives us his own
take on La Folia, the harmonic scheme that almost
a century earlier had inspired composers such as
Corelli, Marin Marais and Vivaldi, as well as Bach's
own father, in the famous 'Peasant Cantata'.