C.P.E. Bach: The Solo Keyboard Music, Vol. 42: Keyboard Transcriptions III

With this recording, volume 42 of the complete music for solo keyboard by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Miklos Spányi continues his exploration of transcriptions of concertos originally written for keyboard and orchestra, to which he adds some movements from early versions of sonatas (the standard versions of which appear on earlier volumes in this series).

Four of the six concertos from the Wq43 collection are featured here (the remaining two appear on the previous volume, BIS2397). When Bach published this set of six concertos for keyboard and orchestra in 1772, he also prepared a version for solo keyboard intended for moderately advanced amateurs who could then play them at home, without orchestra, thus opening up a much larger market. A smart move by the shrewd businessman that Bach was.

About his decision to record these works on a clavichord rather than a tangent piano as previously, Spányi says that it allows ‘nearly infinite possibilities for fine dynamic shadings’ and that ‘the required dynamic contrasts can be emphasised even better than on other keyboard instruments of the period’. Spányi adds that this release is a tribute to the clavichord, and especially to his own instrument, built by Joris Potvlieghe.