C.P.E. Bach - Sinfonias

A fun excursion into the pre-classical repertoire with the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. I listened four or five times to the Sinfonia Wq 183.3 performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Antonini. It's an intriguing piece, sounding surprisingly modern because of its adventurous harmonic language and gestural unpredictability. The Berliner do it really well.

I have a Philips LP with 4 other sinfonias, performed by the English Chamber Orchestra led by Raymond Leppard at the cembalo. This must be early 1970s stuff. Not all of them are equally interesting. The first movement of the Wq 177 has something of the same daring and furor as the Wq 183.3. Wq 182.5 jumps out too. In the first movement CPE makes some really weird harmonic excursions. Its Larghetto is quite seductive as well. The finale has a striking menacing and aggressive quality.

It's somewhat of a mysterious figure, this C.P.E. Bach. Nowadays his discography seems to be quite scattered. Not quite clear where to start. But in his time he was very well regarded and infuential. Mozart referred to him as 'our father'. Beethoven also paid him respect. Stylistically he has been torn between the contrapuntal approach of his father and the more cultured, homophonic style of Italian opera fashionable in his day. His sinfonias distinguish themselves by their rhapsodic forms and offbeat, sometime avant garde solutions. It seems to me today C.P.E. would make an excellent composer of film music.