CPE Bach

Mozartists: Mullova plays Mozart

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Mullova plays Mozart
Mozart 250: 1775
The Mozartists
Viktoria Mullova, Ian Page
Cadogan Hall. 4 November 2025


Haydn: Symphony No. 68 in B flat major
Mozart: Violin Concerto No.3 in G major, K.216
CPE Bach: Symphony in D major, Wq.183/1
Mozart: Violin Concerto No.4 in D major, K.218

The Mozartists‘ enterprising MOZART 250 project has reached its 10th anniversary, with concerts this season focusing on the year 1775, when Mozart turned 19. The project started in 2015 on the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s childhood visit to London and follows Mozart’s musical life and that of his contemporaries year by year until the 250th anniversary of his death in 2041. It has been described as a “journey of a lifetime”, and will probably outlive many members of current classical music concert audiences. Following their Wigmore Hall concert in June (reviewed here), when Rachel Podger played two (2 & 5) of Mozart’s five violin concertos, this concert in the larger Cadogan Hall featured the other two concertos composed during 1775 (3 & 4) performed by Viktoria Mullova, making her debut with The Mozartists.

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Early Music Day recital, Dulwich. 24 March 2024.

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

The Chapel of Christ of Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift
Gallery Road, Dulwich, SE21 7AD
Sunday 24 March 2024, 7:45


AFTER BACH
Andrew Benson-Wilson

Andrew’s annual Early Music Day concerts usually include music by JS Bach, reflecting the fact that Early Music Day is on 21 March, the date of Bach’s birth under the current calendar. This year Andrew is giving two Early Music recitals, with the titles of BEFORE BACH and AFTER BACH. As well as focussing on music from England, Germany and France (John Stanley, CPE Bach and Michel  Corrette) published in the years immediately following Bach’s death in 1750, the AFTER BACH recital also reflects the date of the 1760 George England organ and the rather unusual concert time of 7:45 in the evening.

AFTER BACH and AFTER DARK!

The 1760 George England organ was restored in 2009 by William Drake.
Organ details can be found here.
A link to the programme notes will eventually be posted here.

The Chapel of Christ and Alleyn’s College of God’s Gift adjoin the Dulwich Art Gallery.
Free street parking.
Admission is free, with a generous retiring collection.
Post-concert refreshments.

The first of the two linked Early Music Day recitals has the title BEFORE BACH and is on Tuesday 19 March at 1:10 in The Grosvenor Chapel.

OAE: Mozart in Basingstoke

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

“Mozart in Basingstoke“
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Kati Debretzeni, Luise Buchberger
The Anvil, Basingstoke. 20 May 2023


CPE Bach Symphony in F
Mozart Symphony no 34
JC Bach Sinfonia concertante for violin and cello
CPE Bach Symphony in B minor
Mozart Music from Don Giovanni
Gluck Dance of the Furies

A short tour of related programmes saw the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment visit Birmingham Town Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Basingstoke’s Anvil. Alongside the Mozart Symphony No 34, the CPE Bach Symphony in F, and the JC Bach Sinfonia concertante for violin and cello, common to all three, the Basingstoke concert added CPE Bach’s Symphony in B minor, extracts from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Gluck’s Dance of the Furies. Travel was the key to the choice of composers – they all left their hometowns to develop their own musical language. They also contributed in various ways to the musical developments during the extended transition into the classical era.

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Bach: A Cembalo Certato E Violino Solo

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

“A Cembalo Certato E Violino Solo“
Bach: Complete Sonatas for obligato harpsichord and violin, plus 
Sonatas by CPE Bach, Graun, Schaffrath, Scheibe, Telemann
Phillipe Grisvard, Johannes Pramsohler
Audax Records. ADX 13783. 3CDS. 60’28, 73’10,75’07


Johann Sebastian Bach: Complete Sonatas for Harpsichord and Violin
BWV 1014–1019, BWV 1022, BWV 1020
Johann Adolph Scheibe: 3 Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord
Christoph Schaffrath: Concerto in A Minor CSWV F:30
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Sonata in B Minor, Wq 76
Johann Gottlieb Graun: Sonata in B-flat Major GWV Av:XV:46
Georg Philipp Telemann: Concerto in D Major, TWV 42:D6

This 3-CD package sets Bach’s Sei Sonate a Cembalo certato e Violino solo (together with two others whose authenticity is questioned) against similar pieces by other composers of Bach’s time, several of which are world premiere recordings. Each CD is a complete concert in itself, with two or three of the Bach Sonatas, a Sonata by Johann Adolph Scheibe plus related pieces by Georg Philipp Telemann & Christoph Schaffrath (CD1), Johann Gottlieb Graun (CD2), and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (CD3).

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CPE Bach: Voyage sentimental

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

CPE Bach: Voyage Sentimental
A Sentimental Journey / Empfindsame Reise
Mathieu Dupouy (fortepiano)
Label-Hérisson, LH17. 66’32

The contrast between the music of JS and CPE Bach continues to puzzle many music lovers. Born 29 years apart, CPE Bach’s compositional style was well into the early classical era well before the death of his father, whose music had for some time been considered rather out of date. This 2018 recording focusses on the music of the last few years of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s life. It shows his music at its most developed with more than a hint of the forthcoming Romantic era. His use of the empfindsamer Stil (sensitive style) is very evident in the choice of music in this programme. Continue reading →

CPE Bach: Works for violin & keyboard

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

CPE Bach: Works for violin & keyboard
Tamsin Waley-Cohen, James Baillieu
Signum SIGCD573. 3 CDs. 153’12.

My heart sank when I read the blub for the recording, announcing “The full power and range of Stradivarius plus modern Steinway grand in the service of CPE Bach’s eight violin sonatas”. The liner notes go on to opine that “CPE Bach would have embraced the colour and dynamic possibilities that a Steinway and Stradivarius can create”. This was an argument that was dismissed decades ago by most in the organ world when it came to the performance of JS Bach’s organ music on large-scale romantic organs – or indeed, performance on modern orchestral instruments with 20th-century techniques, such as vibrato. But as I listened I grew more tolerant of the sound and the playing. Continue reading →

JS Bach/JC Bach/CEP Bach: Magnificats

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson ~ Leave a comment

JS Bach, JC Bach & CPE Bach: Magnificats
Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen
Hyperion CDA68157. 76’48

This recording has the same programme as the concert in St John’s, Smith Square in October 2015. The CD was recorded a few days after the concert, in the church of St Mary the Virgin and St Mary Magdalen in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, but has only recently been released. The acoustics of this large Gothic church (with its wide nave and tiny side aisles) are more generous than St John’s, Smith Square, giving an added bloom to the sound, although the spacing of the musical forces sometimes gives more of a sense of distance that the more compact London stage avoided. Unlike the concert performance, the CD opens with JS Bach’s 1733 reworking of his earlier E flat version, written for his first Christmas in Lübeck in 1723. It is given a forthright performance without the irritating gaps between movements that I mentioned in the concert review.  Continue reading →

CPE Bach: Clavierstucke Tangere

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson ~ Leave a comment

CPE Bach: Clavierstucke
Tangere
Alexei Lubimov
ECM New Series 2112. 67’30

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Fantasien, Sonaten, Rondi und SolfeggiRussian pianist Alexei Lubimov concentres his performances and recordings on new music and music from the Baroque era performed on period instruments. This CD presents CPE Bach’s fantasies, sonatas and rondos played on the little-known tangent piano, usually referred to in German-speaking countries as the Pantaleon, Spattisches Klavier or Tangentenflügel. It enjoyed a brief moment of glory in the 18th century as a gap between the harpsichord and clavichord and the forthcoming fortepiano. Rather like the clavichord, its strings are struck from underneath by wood or metal tangents. Unlike the clavichord, where the note continues to sound while the tangent is in contact with the string, the tangent piano has an escarpment action similar to that of a fortepiano which allows the string to freely vibrate. It has a similar extent and control of expressiveness to the clavichord but is capable of much greater volume and intensity. It makes a gloriously twangy sound. There are a few original instruments still in existence, but this recording uses a modern replica, by Chris Maene of Belgium, of a 1794 Späth and Schmahl tangent piano from Regensburg.  Continue reading →

CPE Bach: Complete works for keyboard & violin

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson ~ Leave a comment

CPE Bach: Complete works for keyboard & violin
Duo Belder Kimura
Resonus RES10192. 2CDs 69’32+62.51

This CD includes all of CPE Bach’s pieces for violin and keyboard, with seven Sonatas, a Fantasia, Sinfonia and Ariosa with variations (Wq. 71-80). For the first few seconds of listening to this recording, I wondered if it was playing at the correct speed, so sparkily light and delicate was the brisk opening with its precisely articulated rapid-fire trills from both violin and harpsichord. But this was the musical language of the young CPE Bach heard in the opening of his Sonata in C Wq.73, one of a group of three Sonatas composed in 1731 when Bach was just 17 and a student at the Leipzig Thomasschule. He later revised them 15 years later in Berlin, and it is not clear to what extent we are hearing the young or more mature Bach. But the combination of his father’s influence and the move away from the style of ‘Old Bach’ that was to dominate CPE Bach’s compositional style is clear. The second group of Sonatas date from 1763 (Wq. 75-78), with the harpsichord taking on a stronger role. The final two pieces (the Arioso and Fantasia) date from the 1780s, and the keyboard (a fortepiano after Walter, 1795) dominates the texture. The other pieces use a harpsichord after Blanchet (1730); the violin an original from the Gagliano school (c1730).  Continue reading →