Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Five Piano Trios (Sonatas Wq. 89/1, 5 & 6 / Wq. 90/3 / Wq. 91/3 & 4)

1. Keyboard Sonata in C major, Wq 90/3, H524
Composed by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
with Philipp Bosbach , Matthias Fischer , Harald Hoeren

2. Keyboard Sonata in F major, Wq 91/3, H533
Composed by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
with Philipp Bosbach , Matthias Fischer , Harald Hoeren

3. Keyboard Sonata in E minor, Wq 89/5, H529
Composed by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
with Philipp Bosbach , Matthias Fischer , Harald Hoeren

Tracks:

Son Wq 90 No.3 in C: Allegro Di Molto
Son Wq 90 No.3 in C: Larghetto
Son Wq 90 No.3 in C: Allegretto
Son Wq 89 No.1 in B flat: Allegretto
Son Wq 89 No.1 in B flat: Larghetto
Son Wq 89 No.1 in B flat: Allegro
Son Wq 91 No.3 in F: Andante - Allegro Assai
Son Wq 91 No.3 in F: Adagio
Son Wq 91 No.3 in F: Allegretto
Son Wq 89 No.5 in e: Allegretto
Son Wq 89 No.5 in e: Larghetto
Son Wq 89 No.5 in e: Allegro
Son Wq 89 No.6 in D: Allegro
Son Wq 89 No.6 in D: Andantino
Son Wq 89 No.6 in D: Allegro
Son Wq 91 No.4 in C: Arioso With Nine Vars

Customer Reviews:

Exemplary chamber music makes for rapt listening.......2006-10-22

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714 - 1788), "Five Piano Trios" [this title is, in fact, rather misleading: the CD contains six works to which Bach himself gave the title of "Sonatas for Keyboard with the Accompaniment of a Violin and a Violincello"]. Performed by Trio 1790. [Harald Hoeren plays a copy of a fortepiano by Matthias Heilmann from around 1780; Matthias Fischer and Philipp Bosbach play period violin and cello respectively.] Recorded in June and July 1993 at the studios of Deutschlandfunk (German national radio). cpo 999 216-2.

Trio 1790's releases for the German specialist label cpo, in which they trace the development of the trio in the second half of the 18th century, have harvested a great deal of praise in the critical press, and this issue containing six (not five) sonatas by Bach's second son Carl Philipp Emanuel is exemplary in that both the performance and the engineering are of the highest standard. The program contains excerpts from three collections published in London and Leipzig in 1776 and 1777, at a time therefore when the harpsichord was gradually being replaced by the fortepiano, so that Harald Hoeren is probably right to choose the latter despite the fact that Bach himself left it up to the performers which of the two instruments they preferred to use. The term "trio" is definitely a misnomer here, because Bach himself pointed out that the pieces could be played as solos for a keyboard instrument without any great loss; the violin tends to follow the discant voice of the piano, while the cello fulfils the basso continuo function; there is thus little in the way of comparison to the later trios of, say, Schubert. Harald Hoeren's notes (which are quite brief by cpo's standards) point out certain parallels to similar works by Mozart, but as a listener what impressed me most was the individuality and expressivity of the pieces, which, while being relatively easy to listen to, have nothing of the smoothness of the "galant" style practised by Bach's younger brother Johann Christian. This is all "Empfindsamkeit", not perhaps quite as individualistic as some of Bach's even later orchestral works from his Hamburg period, but still written in a distinctively personal style. The polished playing and the superb recording make for almost 75 minutes of rapt listening.

Finding the Empfindsamkeit.......2000-07-16

Trio 1790's performance of these works by C.P.E. Bach does full justice to the conception of the composer as a representative of "Empfindsamkeit," a stylistic trend in late 18th century German music which sought innovations in the expression of quicksilver emotions and moods. No stuffy drawing rooms here -- this is music to jolt you out of your Rococo rut once and for all. Expect the unexpected, that's the best advice. Expect to be touched when you least expect it by some snippet of melody that appears out of nowhere. The playing is absolutely top drawer, as it always is with Trio 1790. The music is gorgeous in C.P.E. Bach's endearingly quirky way. As I would say about all the other recordings of Trio 1790: you can't go wrong.

Track Listings: