Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Stuff from the Bach Boys, November 10, 2003
By A Customer
Let's face it. There have been many of these "Sons of Bach" albums, and while they introduce us to the wealth of talent in the Bach family, they often end up just underscoring by how much Johann Sebastian's talent outstripped that of the rest of the clan. I can't say you'll come away from this disc with a new appreciation of Bach's prolific progeny, but I will be surprised if you don't find this is one of the most enjoyable and successful such collections to come along. First, the music. As the notes to this recording point out, Wilhelm Friedemann's concerto is a pretty exciting recent scholarly discovery. I doubt, as the notes suggest, that it has any claim to rival in popularity J. S.'s Suite in B Minor, but I will say this: it is just about the equal of C. P. E. Bach's well-known and admired concertos, with a slow movement that has the tender melodiousness of the best of J. C. Bach, while the outer movements have some of the clever harmonic-melodic twists and turns that C. P. E. is famous for.Unfortunately, the lone representative here from J. C. is attractive and diverting but not one of his best works. It sounds, as all the lesser pieces by this composer sound, like Mozart without genius. There is better J. C. Bach music around. But then the work by J. Ch. F. Bach, the least remembered of the Bach sons, is well above what I have heard from him in the past. The Concerto for Fortepiano and Viola is a novel concept, and it is approached with imagination by J. Ch. F. The quality of invention is well sustained in this big work--at almost 26 minutes by far the most substantial composition on the disc. I liked especially the opening movement marked allegro con brio, a successful blend of fire and lyricism. While it is the most striking movement, the others have their moments of beauty and drama too; overall, this is a concerto of great interest. Last and best is the valedictory concerto of C. P. E. Bach, certainly the greatest of J. S.'s sons. The Concerto for Harpsichord and Fortepiano is an off-beat masterwork in which C. P. E. bids farewell to the harpsichord by playing it off against its young cousin the fortepiano, now in the ascendancy. The concerto is a wonderful exploration of the sonorities of both instruments, and if they were rivals in the music world, here they are instead civilized conversationalists. If you enjoy C. P. E. Bach's strange harmonic explorations and melodies that turn on a dime, here they are in extremely enjoyable abundance. The last movement is a joyous, youthful romp, remarkable coming from the 70-something C. P. E. If the music is fine, the music making is extraordinary. Musica Antiqua and Goebel always have novel things to say about the novelties they profer, and these performances are no exception. The playing is wonderfully fluid, dramatic when it needs to be (I always love the horns), plangent and tender when that is called for. Excellent sound rounds out the package: it's close but atmospheric, with great detail as well as timbral realism. I highly recommend this one.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesthing evolution to the romantic period, March 13, 2003
After an anthology of the ascendants of J.S.B., Goebel is concernerd about his four sons. The most convincing moment of this Cd is the "Symphonie concertante pour violon et violoncelle", which is elegant and refined. A big surprise: "Le Concerto pour flűte" of Wilhelm Frieedemann is astonishing. It is full of strenght ! The flautist,Verena Fischer,is radiant. The curious concerto of Johann Christoph Friedrich, for " hammerflügel, alto and orchestra" is strange and beautiful. You must hear Robert Hill (formidable at the hammerflügel) hold a dialogue with Reinhard Goebel (alto). This is delightful! The "Concerto pour pianoforte, clavecin et orchestre" of Carl Philipp Emmanuel is the most known piece of this CD. Goebel and his brilliant soloist are palying with a frenzy spirit ! Very stimulating CD ! The sound is deep and delicious ! Archiv does it again. Goebel too.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The "Old Wig" Could Be Proud of His Sons, August 24, 2008
Two of JS Bach's sons became more renowned and more influential in their lifetimes than their father - Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788), the Berlin Bach, and Johann Christian (1735-1782), the London Bach. Two more had significant provincial careers, Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-1784) in Dresden and Halle, and the least known, Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795) in Buecke, near Hanover. Certainly the fact that they were Bachs, of a family of musicians four generations deep, contributed hugely to their musical development and shaped their personal destinies, but their heritage has far too often overshadowed their accomplishments as composers, and I intend to say no more about it.
Baroque and Rococo concertos were essentially show-off display pieces, circus acts for the fingers and lips of the soloist. Concertos for harpsichord or fortepiano, however, had an inherent difficulty; neither instrument had the dynamic volume to dominate even the small period orchestra. No matter how affective the keyboard instrument was in its melodic statements and cadenzas, the full orchestra would eventually enter and expunge the musical impression made by the soloist. Even the great Alessandro Scarlatti couldn't solve the problem of the well-balanced harpsichord concerto, and Vivaldi shunned the genre. Listening to Mozart's fortepiano concerti in a modern concert hall is almost frustrating enough to justify playing them on a modern grand piano, if only a pianist could be persuaded to play with taste.
Johann Christoph Friedrich solved the problem by pairing the fortepiano with the mellow timbres of the Baroque viola and using the orchestra very sparingly. At times the viola seems to stand in for the full orchestra, while the fortepiano plays continuo with the left hand. The larghetto second movement is effectively a trio sonata, while the final allegretto sounds like a happy concertante. This is a fine piece of music by the modest guild master of Buecke, made very fine indeed by the superb fortepiano technique of Robert Hill, and the subtle virtuosity of Reinhard Goebel on viola instead of his normal violin. I suspect that the acoustic balance has been achieved partly by legerdemain with the placement of mikes, but if so, I applaud the decision. This is a performance I will listen to often.
CPE Bach wrote most of his music, as he declared himself, to suit the taste of others. The Concerto for Harpsichord, Fortepiano, and Orchestra was an exception; it was his last orchestral composition and something of a personal summary of his art. Certainly he pulls out all the stops for melodic novelty. By ping-ponging back and forth between the two keyboard instruments, and by giving each in turn the most curlicue arpeggios, CPE creates a zone of virtuosic excitement for his soloists that balances the boisterous simplicity of his orchestra of strings, flutes, and horns. A modern listener, with ex post facto knowledge of the approaching oblivion of the harpsichord, will be intrigued by the similarities of sound from CPE's two keyboards. Stylistically, the fortepiano is still playing harpsichord music, barely beginning to find its own character, yet the harpsichord, with its lighter timbre and crisper silences between notes, seems almost eager to fade into an echo.
It's odd that Reinhard Goebel has chosen a flute concerto to represent the work of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, since CPE spent most of his career dishing up flute music to satiate his royal master, Frederick the Great, by all accounts a good enough flautist not to embarrass himself in his own court. Goebel declares in his notes that this concerto is a piece that does not "readily disclose itself to an audience... a wonderful learned `academy piece' - for a concert of expert players." In short, a piece that needs repeated listenings an time to grow on you. The Sinfonia Concertante by the youngest Bach brother, Johann Christian, is exactly the opposite, a piece that delivers its full charm at first listening, a joyful, balletic romp in A major.
The disciplined virtuosity of Musica Antiqua Koeln has never been more apparent than in these four concerti, each one challenging both stylistically and technically, bridging as they do the aesthetic divide between late Baroque classicism and early modern romanticism. One can hear the quasi-Darwinian struggle for survival of the older instruments - not only the harpsichord but also the keyless winds and the arc-bowed strings - called upon to perform the new idiom of public concerts. No other ensemble plays this repertoire more securely. Above all, this is intelligent music of historical importance, played with ravishing skill by musicians who truly believe in its worth.
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~ Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
~ George Frederick Handel
~ J.B. Vanhal
by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach 
