Subtle and rapid dynamic contrasts in the trios suggest they were originally conceived for a fortepiano or clavichord, instruments Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach preferred for nuanced performance.
Performer Biography
Karel Valter, the traverso player, is also a recording studio owner specializing in early music and has produced CDs for various orchestras and labels.
Compositional Technique
The sonatas on this album are arrangements of earlier trio sonatas, where one melody line was assigned to the clavier's right hand and the continuo line to the left.
Composer Biography
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, a key figure in the transitional period after the Baroque era, represents a radical change in musical aesthetics.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach believed a musician must be moved themselves to move others, a new idea that laid the groundwork for the Romantic movement.
Historical Context
The genre of sonatas with obbligato clavier was particularly popular in Berlin while Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was in the service of Frederick the Great.
Critical Reception
According to philosopher Johann Georg Sulzer, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's sonatas were exemplary 'passionate tone-conversations' that made one feel they were hearing an intelligible language, not just notes.
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