Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Piano Concerto in D major, Wq. 43/2, H472 (1772)
Sonatina in D major, Wq. 96, H449 (1762)
Piano Concerto in E major, Wq. 14, H417
Fantasia II in C major, Wq. 61/6, H291
La Gleim: Rondeau, Wq. 117/19, H89
Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto/Orazio Sciortino (piano)
rec. 2019, Auditorium Cesare Pollini, Padova, Italy
Hänssler Classic HC23008 [75]
This recent release on Hänssler Classic contains both three concertante works and two for solo piano by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Piano soloist Orazio Sciortino, born in Syracuse, Sicily, directs from the piano the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto.
CPE Bach (known as Emanuel) was the fifth child and second surviving son of the great Johann Sebastian and his first wife, Maria Barbara. Prior to the genius of J.S. Bach’s music becoming widely recognized, it was actually Weimar-born Emanuel who was acknowledged as the outstanding composer of the Bach dynasty. The three hundredth anniversary of his birth fell in 2014, inspiring increasing interest in his work, and a number of recordings were released. I recall visiting in 2011 the Lutheran Stadtkirche of St. Peter & St. Paul (Herderkirche) in Weimar, one of the key destinations in my own Bach dynasty pilgrimage and where Emanuel was baptised and where in 1999 Sir John Eliot Gardiner commenced his set on DG Archiv Produktion and Soli Deo Gloria of the complete recordings of J.S. Bach’s surviving church cantatas to mark the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death.
Prolific in a number of genres bar opera, Emanuel wrote fifty-two keyboard concertos between 1733-88. His first was a product of his time in Leipzig, no doubt under his father’s watchful eye, and the final concerto written in Hamburg in the year of his death. His music can be viewed as an important influence in the transitional period from the late-baroque music of his father and his godparent, Georg Philipp Telemann, to classical period composers such as Haydn and Mozart. His works have been catalogued by Belgian Alfred Wotquenne’s in the ‘Wq’ numbering system and also in American E. Eugene Helm’s ‘H’ numbers. As on this Hänssler release, both Wotquenne and Helm numbers are commonly ascribed to a work.
Sciortino has chosen to play two of the keyboard concertos, one in D major, Wq. 43/2, and a second in E major, Wq. 14, where the soloist improvises his own cadenzas. Both are three-movement scores where Sciortino savours the contrasts of the near relentless energy and excitement of the Allegros and conveys a convincing sense of longing and reflection in the Andantes and Adagios.
The group of Sonatinas for piano and orchestra were written around 1763 during Emanuel’s employment in Berlin and later subjected to revision. Sciortino plays beautifully in the Sonatina in D major, Wq. 96, a two-movement work with a near sixteen-minute opening movement marked Andante and Arioso and a short second movement Allegro. He additionally performs two of Emanuel’s solo piano works, finding rich colours and maintaining gratifying tone, first the Fantasia II in C major, Wq. 61/6 designed in five continuous sections of quickly shifting moods followed by La Gleim: Rondeau, Wq. 117/19, an agreeably charming piece in the manner of Couperin.
Often ahead of their time, all Emanuel Bach’s works have a worthy and distinctly individual character that Sciortino, such an expressive and stylish player, seems to relish. His choice of tempi and dynamic are pleasingly apt, and he is not given to exaggeration. Using modern instruments, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto flourish under his adept direction; their orchestral playing is first class – fresh, exuberant and well unified.
Sound engineer Matteo Costa has provided a clarity and balance that are most pleasing to the ear. Sciortino is playing a Steinway D-274 Gran Coda that sounds wonderful. I’m not familiar with the particular works here, so cannot make comparisons; nevertheless, with Sciortino in such splendid form there is so much to enjoy here.
Michael Cookson
Previous review: David Barker (August 2023)
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