Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Sonatas & Rondos
Of the sons of J.S. Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel was by far the most interesting composer, as the Sonatas and Rondos played here by Mikhail Pletnev amply demonstrate. Consider Pletnev's exhilaratingCD of Scarlatti sonatas: the fact that he played them anachronistically on the piano was in no way allowed to interfere with their intrinsic spirit. Here, he repeats the trick. Employing plenty of pedal and the full dynamic force of a modern concert grand, he somehow creates a quintessentially 18th-century atmosphere. And they're amazing pieces--it's a fair bet that this outstanding disc will help usher them into the mainstream repertoire, where they belong. Bach wrote them for an audience of "connoisseurs and amateurs," but that audience must have been a very superior one. To label this style "pre-classical" is to woefully shortchange it. Each work feels like a musical-intellectual exercise--an experiment, but riveting every step of the way. Here the spirits of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven are boldly prefigured but in a uniquely flamboyant way: dazzling fantasialike sections, delicately spring-heeled scherzi, massively grave adagios--a whole new musical landscape.--Michael Church