COMPOSERS: CPE Bach
LABELS: CPO
WORKS: Sinfonias, Wq 173-5, 178 & 180
PERFORMER: Les Amis de Philippe/Ludger Rémy
CATALOGUE NO: 999 418-2
Readers will forgive me if I start with the really exceptional notes by the conductor: informative, accurate, scholarly, readable – a model for presenting such material. The performances are also models, well thought-out and underlining the idiosyncratic brilliance of this music. One has to say that CDs are now approaching a golden period – at least in 18th-century music. Never have performances been better prepared (from the original sources in this case) or more faithfully recorded. Incidentally all these CPE Bach symphonies were written in Berlin at or for the court of Frederick the Great before Haydn began to compose in the form. So there are new things under the sun. If you like pre-Classical symphonies, try these startlingly original works. HC Robbins Landon
CPE Bach: Sinfonias, Wq 173-5, 178 & 180
Readers will forgive me if I start with the really exceptional notes by the conductor: informative, accurate, scholarly, readable – a model for presenting such material. The performances are also models, well thought-out and underlining the idiosyncratic brilliance of this music. One has to say that CDs are now approaching a golden period – at least in 18th-century music. Never have performances been better prepared (from the original sources in this case) or more faithfully recorded.
Our rating
5
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:37 pm