Search - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik, Christine Schornsheim :: C.P.E. Bach: Symphonies

Bach's second son didn't write a great many symphonies, but all of them are good, and well worth hearing. As a composer, CPE has fallen between the cracks of musical history. Neither baroque nor fully classical, he's seen as a "transitional" figure, which is, musically speaking, like telling someone that they are "a little pregnant." The implication is that his style is somehow unformed or impure, when in truth it's both highly developed and utterly personal. As you can clearly hear in these excellent performances, CPE had his own things to say and a unique way to say them, and the fact that he wasn't Haydn or Mozart doesn't make his music one bit less interesting or enjoyable. Give him a shot. --David Hurwitz