C. P. E. Bach Sonata H. 562 (Part 1 of 2) Poco Adagio

Recorded live in concert 1 December 2007.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788) was J.S. Bach's second son, and one of the pre-eminent composers of his generation. Most of his works for the flute were written during his years in the employ of Frederick the Great, the flute-playing Prussian king. This was not the happiest period of Bach's life. While he reported with some pride that he had accompanied Frederick in his first flute concert as King, Emanuel's salary was never commensurate with his position, and he came to be quite sensitive about being overworked and underpaid. In 1767 he took over the post of music-director for the city of Hamburg, a post that had been held for the previous forty-six years by his godfather, Georg Philipp Telemann. In 1783 the blind flutist Friedrich Ludwig Dülon (1769-1826) visited Bach in Hamburg and played the a-minor sonata for him. According to Dülon, Bach commented that it was strange that the one for whom he had written the sonata (probably the king?) could not play it, while one for whom it was not written, could. Dülon was fourteen years old at the time.

The flute is a Folkers & Powell copy of a boxwood flute by Heinrich Grenser dating from the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Dülon is known to have preferred Grenser's flutes through much of his career, and probably used such a flute in his performance for C.P.E. Bach in 1783. In keeping with later eighteenth century taste, this flute has a bright tone color: its pitch is ca. a=435.

The portrait is said to be of Quantz, Frederick the Great's flute teacher.

Thank you for watching!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• CPE
• Bach
• flute
• traverso
• traversiere
• baroque
• galant
• empfindsamkeit
• affekt

[recorderson]

I simply love this beatiful sonata by C.P.E..!! And this performance too !