Search - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Laurence Cummings :: C.P.E. Bach: Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin

Entertaining rarities from a master of melody

J. TIMMERMAN | Lawson, NSW Australia | 06/03/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Three sonatas and an Arioso by Johann Sebastian Bach's best known son, Carl Phillip Emmanuel, are presented on this album. One sonata is an early work from 1731, written when he was 17 and his father was still actively composing, while the others are dated 1763. The early sonata is very accomplished and shows the primary function of the harpsichord as providing continuo. The later sonatas however see the harpsichord as having a more dominant melodic role, demonstrating the end of the continuo function and preempting duos and trios where parts are more or less equal.Emmanuel Bach's father may have been a hard act to follow, but these sonatas display the high level of creative achievement that made Emmanuel so popular. Highly melodious and well-structured, they provide a wealth of listening pleasure. The relationship of the two instruments in the 1763 sonatas is particularly intricate and involving, and the energetic performers provide great entertainment as they glide through some very complex interplay.Adrian Butterfield is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music in London and leads two chamber ensembles. He has also conducted and played in Germany and Canada. Prof. Butterfield plays a period instrument in this recording. The tone of his playing is warm and full, the intonation precise.Laurence Cummings, a graduate of the London Royal College of Music, has performed with many of the top period ensembles and is well-known as a conductor also. He is Head of the Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, and a founding member of the London Handel Players, led by Adrian Butterfield. Mr. Cummings plays a Dulcken copy harpsichord and a Silbermann copy clavichord (CPE Bach himself owned a Silbermann, his favourite instrument).The recording quality is clean and nicely balanced, with some dryness in the violin tone tending toward fierceness in louder passages. Interesting sleeve notes are provided by oboist Bruce Haynes."