Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach frequently reworked his music, sometimes making minor changes like adding wind instruments, and other times creating essentially new pieces by arranging works for different solo instruments.
Performer Biography
Miklós Spányi, the performer on this album, has concentrated his performance and research work on the oeuvre of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and has actively worked to revive C. P. E. Bach's favorite instrument, the clavichord.
Historical Context
The Berlin of the 1750s and 1760s saw subtle but far-reaching changes in Emanuel Bach's musical life, influenced by the Seven Years War and the rise of a middle class.
Compositional Technique
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Sonatinas, composed between 1762 and 1764, were designed for public performances in larger spaces and often used short character pieces from the preceding decade as musical material.
Instruments
The Sonatina in B flat major by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is notable for being one of only two such sonatinas to use two solo keyboards, and possibly his first work to combine the timbres of harpsichord and piano.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, like his famous father, Johann Sebastian Bach, was a pragmatic composer who seldom wrote music not designed for a particular use.
Composer Biography
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was his father's greatest champion for half a century after his death, and learned from him not only musical technique but also career skills.
