Bach: Keyboard Music, Vol. 5

Featuring

Miklós Spányi
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach often provided written-out embellishments for amateur keyboardists, especially his students, who could not improvise their own.

Composition History

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed the five sonatas on this album between 1757, the year the Seven Years' War began, and 1764, the year it ended.

Interpretation

Miklós Spányi, the clavichordist on this recording, performs Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's original ornaments as well as many of his own invention.

Historical Context

During the Seven Years' War, many patrons of public musical events left Berlin, leading Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach to focus on solo keyboard music and songs, which were in demand by amateur players.

Instruments

The clavichord used in this recording is a 1991 replica by Thomas Friedemann Steiner, based on a large, unfretted clavichord from 1772 by Christian Gottlob Hubert, a famous 18th-century builder.

Composer Biography

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's 1753 publication, "Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen" (Essay on the true Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments), transformed him from a harpsichordist into an international authority on stringed keyboard instruments.

Performer Biography

Miklós Spányi, the performer, has won first prize at international harpsichord competitions in Nantes (1984) and Paris (1987) and is preparing the complete edition of C.P.E. Bach's keyboard works.