C.P.E.BACH Six keyboard sonatas
Carole Cerasi (harpsichord
and fortepiano)
Metronome MET CD
1032. 67'27"
Carole Cerasi won the Gramophone Award for Baroque music last year.
This is a delightful selection from those of Carl Philipp Emanuel's numerous
sonatas which were not included in the main collections nor published during
his lifetime. They are given here chronologically, each from a different
decade of his long working life. The earlier ones are more suitable for
harpsichord.
Peter Holman, who uses the Helm numbering, puts them into perspective. The
track listing provides also the Wotquenne numbers, which are quoted in the
inexpensive Dover Edition Volumes 1 & 2 of CPE Bach's "Great Keyboard
Sonatas". Those contain most of Cerasi's choices, and can also be recommended
to listeners to enjoy exploring some of the sonatas upon whatever keyboard
instrument is to hand. Many of them do not demand an advanced technique.
H13 (1735 revd. 1743) has a Siciliano with echo effects. H51 (1747)
is bizarre and experimental, continually changing direction. H66 (1751) is
a 5-movement suite of dances in an older style, but with expressive nuances
which demand the capabilities of clavichord or fortepiano. H211 (1766) has
written-out varied repeats. H248 (1775) links its movements attacca,
and goes into distant keys. H280 (1783) was written for a bowed keyboard
instrument, the Bogen Clavier and its merry finale is in a style taken
over by Haydn.
Carole Cerasi has an admirably free, expressive manner with this music on
either instrument, both of which, recorded at Forde Abbey in 1998, are based
upon contemporary examples. Bruce Kennedy's double-manual harpsichord is
after Mietke of c.1704, and Jean Bascou's based upon a suitable Stein fortepiano
of the 1780s. An admirable addition to the extensive C.P.E.Bach discography
to follow her earlier CD of suites by Jacquet.
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
