C.P.E. Bach: Magnificat

Haenchen, Hartmut, Kammerorchester "Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach", Rundfunkchor Berlin

94776

C.P.E. Bach is particularly renowned for his unrivalled piano sonatas in the sensitive style (‘empfindsamer Stil’), and contributed to almost every important form of classical music, but he began to recognise the symphony as a medium of great expressive potential in the mid-18th century, and eventually wrote an impressive total of 19 works within this genre. Two splendid examples are presented here. The Symphony Wq173 owes its charm to small surprises such as a sudden shift to the minor key in the recapitulation of the first movement, but also to the calmly flowing melodic line of the second movement, and the minuet-like passages of the final movement. Meanwhile, the Symphony Wq180 is intriguing in form throughout, though the fanfare-like opening subject and the restless semiquaver figures of the violins, redolent of the baroque concertante style, above all lend it an exuberant quality. The Magnificat, which rounds off the CD, provides a more clearly baroque, and of course vocal, counterweight to the symphonies, and moves through dramatically contrasting emotions, alternately triumphant, severe and subdued. The piece was recorded live to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.

CD

Brilliant Classics

13.11.2019

5028421947761